This movie tells the story of the women who fought back against the official response to the disaster at Three Mile Island. Focusing primarily on the efforts of four women who led the local community's protest, and a fresh-out-of-law-school lawyer who took a lawsuit all the way to the Supreme Court, it is both an indictment of the nuclear industry and its regulators and a personal story about real people.
I saw this at a local film festival and was expecting an amateur production or agitprop. But it's anything but. Rather, it is expertly filmed and carefully edited, splicing slice-of-life portraits, interviews with experts, and historical footage. It makes a compelling case that not only was the leak at Three Mile Island a cover-up that led to drastic spikes in cancer rates upwind of the site, but also that the official response to the leak was a travesty of justice against, and a personal tragedy for, the victims of the accident.
But what makes this film so compelling is how human it is. I found myself pulled into the lives of the people in this community, saddened at their tragedy, rooting for them as underdogs, and uplifted by their dogged spirit. The audience around me was rapt, sometimes in tears, and standing in applause at the end.