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Nuclear Horror Show Parade
Short Film (Full Length) – 1983
This video from Gaylene Preston, shot on her VHS camera, captures an anti-nuclear protest four years before Aotearoa officially went nuclear-free. The footage documents a large team creating dozens of papier-mâché masks and costumes, led by artist Debra Bustin. While listening to Elvis and Johnny Cash, they prepare for a march on 10 August 1983 against the visit to Wellington of nuclear-powered missile cruiser USS Texas. Later there's extended footage of protestors holding handmade anti-nuclear signs, and parading puppets of Robert Muldoon, Ronald Reagan, and the Statue of Liberty wielding an atomic weapon.
Well, the point is you can't actually make people politically aware, aye...– One of those preparing for the march
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