Nuclear Family

Travis Wilkerson, a prominent name of late in American political essays, is known for appealing directly to his audiences through his work. None of his films spares resources when it comes to engaging the viewer with his overwhelming analysis of the nation’s history, and Nuclear Family, made with Erin Wilkerson, is no exception. In this family trip of both filmmakers and their three children across the nuclear remains of the land, they trace paranoia as a social-cultural engine, and also reconsider the question raised by Sun Ra in the ironic song that we hear during the film: “what you gonna do / in a nuclear war?”. Words that resonate with disturbing overtones in these times. (SdB)