The Atomic Cafe

Jayne Loader, Kevin Rafferty, Pierce Rafferty / United States / 1982 / Czech Premiere / 86 min.

synopsis

This cult collage of archival footage from the 1940s to the 1960s offers an absurdly humorous look at life in the atomic age. A subversive juxtaposition of American propaganda films, educational films, commercials, and newspaper reports, it presents a media image of the world in which those now in their 60s grew up. Cold War paranoia and the threat of nuclear war seeped into their lives in many bizarre ways. The media of the time created a kind of hypothetical universe, a paradoxical nuclear culture of exploding nuclear bombs, war heroism, and pop songs with atomic themes.

“The Atomic Café suggests a certain sickness in the country’s soul, daring to poke fun at our perverse brew of utopianism and paranoia.”

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Source: https://www.villagevoice.com/2018/07/31/newly-restored-the-atomic-cafe-is-just-as-vital-as-ever/

biography

Kevin Rafferty (1947–2020), an American documentary filmmaker, studied architecture at Harvard and film at the California Academy. He was Michael Moore's instructor during the filming of Roger & Me (1989). His films include Blood in the Face (1991) and The Last Cigarette (1999).

Pierce Rafferty (* 1952), brother of Kevin Rafferty, moved to New York in 1982, where he co-founded Petrified Films, one of the first archives dedicated to independent films. He is the director of the Henry L. Ferguson Museum in New York State.

Jayne Loader (* 1951) is a native of Texas. Since the 1990s, she has been engaged in new media. She was one of the first bloggers. In 1989 she published Between Pictures. Loader is featured in Timothy Leary's book What Does WoMan Want?