Acclaimed documentary director and writer Jayne Loader will join us in person on Thursday, May 9th at 7pm to talk about her landmark documentary about the dawn of the atomic age The Atomic Cafe (1982). Assembled exclusively from mid-century newsreels and government propaganda sources, her film was one of the first "found footage" documentaries, and it well-remembered for reintroducing Bert the Turtle and the classic classroom atomic war drill cartoon Duck and Cover into American popular culture. For this event selected clips from The Atomic Cafe will be screened and will be followed by a wide-ranging discussion about the film between Ms. Loader and UCSB Film and Media Studies professor Charles Wolfe, History Department professor and the Center for Cold War Studies director Salim Yaqub, and PhD. candidate and CCWS adminstrative assistant Ken Hough. 

In addition to being a renowned documentarian, Ms. Loader is also the creator of the Public Shelter website and CD-Rom, the author of the books Between Pictures (1986) and Wild America (1989), and holds the distinction of being one of the first bloggers.