From summer 2008 to spring 2009, I (Jared) was working on a documentary for 4 Square Entertainment Ltd. called A Cruel Wind Blows, which is a feature length movie about Soviet nuclear testing in Kazakhstan. Here’s a brief synopsis:
For forty years from 1949 to 1989, the Soviet Union exploded 460 nuclear bombs in eastern Kazakhstan. About 200,000 villagers living within 45 kilometres of the test site, known as the Polygon, were exposed to high levels of radiation. Not only were they not protected but they were treated as human guinea pigs, instruments of study in the event that the Cold War turned into nuclear war. But what is probably most devastating of all is what is happening today. Children who were never exposed to nuclear fallout are being born sick and they are getting sicker. That is because the damage their parents and grandparents suffered as a result of the Soviet Union’s nuclear test regime has not only been passed down but seems even to have intensified in the following generations.
A shorter version was created as well to be shown on television, and it goes by the name Silent Bombs: All for the Motherland. Starting this month (August ‘09) the short version is available on the internet presented by the Al Jazeera English show Witness. I have it in four parts below. Watch, enjoy, give me feedback. It is my first feature film since graduating from the University of Regina’s film school in April 2008. I’m not sure how long it will be available for (maybe forever, maybe just for a month or two) so see it now while you can and get the word out. I myself am trying to give it as much press as I can!
This documentary has won Best Political Documentary at the SMPIA Awards in Saskatchewan and recently screened at the Telluride Film Festival (Colorado, USA).
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4 (final)
There are no end credits included so you won’t be able to pick out my name 
But the important thing is that you see it and the great work done by director Rob King and the research done by producer Gerald Sperling.