The Day After Trinity

Pasta with basil pesto.

The Day After Trinity, 1980, a documentary film directed and produced by Jon H. Else. It is a compelling, film that shows the origins and progressions of the Manhattan Project, told through interviews with the many great minds that moved to Los Alamos to work on building the first atomic bomb. The interviews are tied together with narration, archival footage and photos - some from family scrapbooks. The timeline takes us through the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the cold war that followed. I believe the documentary successfully told its story. I watched it on Criterion, where a commentary track version is also available.

I finished the commentary track version this evening. The director's commentary is included. He discusses some of the nuts and bolts of the filmmaking and the structure of the documentary. Also, anecdotes about the moments of pure luck that took place during production. For instance, he talks about an interview with the man who functioned as the Los Alamos film archivist during the Manhattan Project. At the conclusion of the long interview the archivist, almost as an afterthought, mentions that he believes there may be some film footage of the bomb being assembled at the Trinity site. It was a jaw dropping moment. At the time of production, in 1980, no one had ever seen this footage. The director, Jon Else, filed a freedom of information request and was granted access to the footage. It is included in this documentary.