102 minutes, DV, USA, 2007
by Grant Aaker and Josh Wallaert

Arid Lands documents the land and people of the Columbia Basin of southeastern Washington state. Sixty years ago, the Hanford nuclear site produced plutonium for the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki, and today the area is the focus of the largest environmental cleanup in history. It is a landscape of incredible contradictions. Coyotes roam among decommissioned nuclear reactors, salmon spawn in the middle of golf courses, wine grapes grow in the sagebrush, and federal cleanup dollars spur rapid urban expansion.

Arid Lands takes us into a world of sports fishermen, tattoo artists, housing developers, ecologists, and radiation scientists living and working in the area. It tells the story of how people changed the landscape over time, and how the landscape affected their lives.

The filmmakers will be in Missoula for this screening and will participate in a Q&A session with the audience immediately following the film.

www.sidelongfilms.com