White Light Black Rain

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I’m pretty late with this but last week I discovered the beauty of renting DVDs from the public library. I’ve had friends tell me about it, but I was always too preoccupied with the books to pay any attention to the movies.  Well, last week that ended as I rented a handful of documentaries.

I’ve been reading a bunch about documentaries, but more from a technical perspective–I would like to actually make a documentary one day, so reading about the science and method behind their creation is fascinating to me.  But I digress.

This blog isn’t about me making documentaries, this blog is about the documentary White Light Black Rain. 

I could recommend 5-10 great documentaries I’ve watched over the past 6-8 months, but this one is by far the most moving documentary I’ve ever seen.  There are a lot of documentaries about the atomic bomb, and the events leading up to it’s use, but I have never seen a film that approached it from the perspective of those who were affected by it–until now.  White Light Black Rain succeeds where other documentaries fail by putting faces with the horrible destruction.  Prior to seeing this film, I didn’t have much of an emotional connection to the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  I’ve always felt it was fucked up, but it was still a footnote in American history, and American history tends to completely ignore those it hurts the most, so I had never dug deeper.  But White Light Black Rain changed that forever.

It’s one of the first documentaries I’ve watched that brought tears to my eyes.  It is truly sad that the people who were victims of the bomb are completely forgotten about in American history, and shunned in their own country (it’s revealed in the film that they are discriminated against in their own homeland as if they did something wrong).  At no point in my life did i ever consider the individuals who were effected by the bomb; the schoolkids, the teachers, etc.

I’m not here to debate history or get into a discussion about what side was right or wrong, but I do think we can all agree that war is a) very rarely justified and b) is chosen by the rich and powerful but usually fought by the poor, and c) takes the lives of far too many innocent people.

The stories are deeply personal and the images are beyond description.

I highly recommend you take an hour out of your day to watch this film.

Word is blog


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  • kirk

    recommend other docs, also have you seen paradise lost?

  • Anonymous

    Haven’t seen paradise lost. Pretty good?

  • Primexample21

    print…you inspire me, man. Met you in DC about a year and half ago, and ever since then I have held your music in the highest regards (You, Stevie Wonder, and Evidence haha). I just wanted to let you know how much we as fans appreciate what you do, and the honesty and passion you evoke in every word is felt. I don’t know what it is about “Radio-Inactive” that strikes me so hard but that shit is unbelievable. It’s like the perfect balance of everything needed to make a song with meaning and definition.

    Anyway, I look forward to a documentary if one ever drops, and I will have to find a show in Columbus to hit up. I’m from Syracuse NY but my brother lives there, if you ever go to Easton, hit up the Northstar Cafe.

  • Anonymous

    thanks for the support and kind words! lots more music to come!

  • http://twitter.com/Demont11 Phillip Dimond

    I’m gonna check this out… thanks for the heads up
    Another doco worth checking out is ‘The This Blue line’ done by Errol Morris… made in 1988 funnily enough. Pretty amazing how he put it all together

  • Joe

    “Dear Zachary” has to be the most emotional film I have ever seen. You aren’t human if you don’t shed a tear to that documentary. Highly recommend.

  • Anonymous

    i’m gonna try to find that. thanks for the recommendation.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_7ZSUR7R7BK2NQYMYEGA5CFJ3FQ Jorgie

    always appreciate a good documentary recomendation. thank you Print!

  • Anonymous

    no problem. i’m gonna write up a post soon with my top documentary pics I’ve seen lately

  • Amber

    Still waiting on that list of docs you recommend, buuuut I understand your a busy man. I’m diggin the Adventures of Blueprint videos by the way. Keep em coming. Have a good day!

  • Anonymous

    thanks Amber. gonna try to get the list of docs up this week

  • Jezzywolfe

    Stumbled across you because I watched this documentary tonight and was interested to see what others had to say about it. It’s an amazing piece, and truly horrific. Since you’re looking for great documentaries, I figured I’d drop a couple titles for you. (I recently signed up for Netflix and have been on a documentary FRENZY!)

    My WWII craze started with the documentary, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. It is absolutely surreal, and there’s some pretty messed up film and photography incorporated into it. Really drives home the unjust horror dealt to innocent Jews. 

    I also saw The Last Days, another documentary that interviews five survivors of the holocaust. Its really well done, but then, you expect that from Spielberg.

    I’ve seen a ton of other docs about all kinds of topics, but these are probably some of the most powerful I’ve come across. If you get the opportunity to check them out, I’m sure everyone would love to know what you think of them!

  • Anonymous

    good looking out. i’ve sen that Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, and i agree that it’s really good. the old footage and pics really hit home. Haven’t seen The Last Days but will check it out.

    thanks for the comment!