The Atomic Café

Produced and directed by Kevin Rafferty, Jayne Loader and Pierce Rafferty, the influential film compilation The Atomic Café provocatively documents the post-World War II threat of nuclear war as depicted in a wide assortment of archival footage from the period (newsreels, statements from politicians, advertisements, training, civil defense and military films). This vast, yet entertaining, collage of clips serves as a unique document of the 1940s-1960s era and illustrates how these films — some of which today seem propagandistic or even patently absurd ("The House in the Middle") — were used to inform the public on how to cope in the nuclear age.

The Atomic Café was added to the National Film Registry in 2016.


 * Clip Show