In Exile

A short film that explores the US nuclear legacy in the Pacific through the lens of members of the Marshallese community in Springdale Arkansas. Each year they gather to commemorate the bombing of Bikini Atoll in 1946 and ask questions such as Why did the United States choose their islands, and what are the ongoing impacts upon their indigenous Pacific Island community?

Directed by Nathan Fitch
Produced by Angela Edward

Director’s Bio: Nathan Fitch is a filmmaker and a professor at The New School. His award winning films have been published by The New York Times Op Docs, TIME magazine, The New Yorker, PBS and NPR, to name a few. Nathan’s feature length directorial debut, Island Soldier, won a number of film festival awards, and was broadcast on PBS in 2018. Nathan holds an MFA from the Integrated Media Arts program at Hunter college, where he was the recipient of the James Aronson Award for Social Justice Journalism, and a Picture of the Year International award. Nathan’s new short film IN EXILE recently won the Reel South Award at the films world premiere at the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival.

Plays in

Stepping Stones

Past and present reflect one another in this trio of short documentaries about islands caught in the web of United States influence, and people living in the shadow of that impact. Covering nearly a century of war, exploitation, and emigration, these stories reflect just a fraction of the breadth of identities and experiences blooming in the many corners of the contemporary world’s most prominent empire. The histories of these countries and communities are ripples in a stream, their present circumstances shaped subtly over all that time.