To Use a Mountain
I wrote about this recently while discussing a “Repertory Revue” selection, but about a month ago, I went to Cherokee, North Carolina for work. My wife joined me, as well as one of our nephews. After I was done with work one day, we went to the Cherokee museum in town. It was a fascinating experience because there is history, of course, throughout, but there’s also a tacit acknowledgement that a lot of that history when the museum was first opened was written by white America, which is going to have a very different perspective than that of the Cherokee themselves. I bring that up here because “To Use a Mountain” excels as a film when it is focusing on the people whose lives are directly impacted by its subject, rather than the dry recitation of facts about its subject, often through images of printed words and maps on the screen.
The question of what to do with nuclear waste has been a debate to be had for nearly the entire time since the United States has been developing nuclear weapons. In Casey Carter’s film, that debate is something written into law during the Reagan ’80s, where a commission will be formed to look into the communities and areas best suited for the burial of 77,000 tons on nuclear waste. “To Use a Mountain” looks at six rural communities that have been marked as the “best candidates” for the project. But given how nuclear waste carries a 10,000 year lifespan before it’s no longer hazardous, that seems like a fool’s errand, as well as an abdication of the government’s responsibility towards its people. That’s especially true when it comes to the proposal of Yucca Mountain in Nevada, which is partially on native land.
Carter’s film is important in its subject matter because it ties into our lack of respect for the Earth, for Native lands, for Native people. At one point, someone says that we will not be around in 10,000 years, and while it might have meant the people currently living, with the way climate change is going, it would not shock me if humanity is gone completely. And it will have been our fault. “To Use a Mountain” kind of loses my interest when it is showing us the printed words and maps on the screen rather than focusing on the people’s testimony of who this will impact. The images of abnormally impacted landscapes and wildlife, and the anger of people whose voices have been dismissed in the discussion, is what stays with me after “To Use a Mountain.” It is a movie intended to be a wakeup call. We should listen.
