The Producers

Born in Jamaica and raised in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, social and environmental issues pervade Suzan’s work. Her films have appeared on National Public Television and on
the Documentary Channel, at Lincoln Center, and at many festivals
Her film, Bag It (2010), was honoured as a finalist at the Puma
Creative Impact Awards in Berlin, and has been televised in over 30 countries. Her current project, Uranium Drive-In, is a recipient of
Sundance Institute and Chicken and Egg funding and was featured
at both Good Pitch and Hot Docs Pitch Forum.

Making The Film

I live in the resort town that is home to the environmental organization opposing the uranium mill in Uranium Drive-In. The resort town of Telluride is about sixty miles from the communities featured in the film. Early on in the process, I began to follow the issue of the proposed mill as meetings and debates began, outlining the pros and cons. I went into the project assuming that this will was a bad idea—after all I consider myself an environmentalist and was concerned about the impacts of the new mill on our watershed. As well, I was wary of nuclear energy.

After spending two years in this community really getting to know people and why they so desperately wanted the mill, I grew to understand that the issue wasn’t nearly as black and white as I had originally assumed. Many factors need to be weighed when
we, as a nation, decide on a sustainable energy future.

While I am still not a nuclear energy convert, especially in regards to the front end and back end of the nuclear fuel cycle, I am aware that it may need to be part of our energy future if we expect to dramatically reduce our planet’s carbon emissions. Several world-renowned scientists, who were formerly anti-nuclear, have revealed to me that they see no way for our survival without nuclear energy; they were very clear in their stance that renewable energy can never fulfill all of our energy needs. That does give one pause.