Between 1964 and 1973, the United States conducted a "secret" war, dropping over 2 million tons of bombs on the mountains and jungles of Laos. Many of these bombs -especially a newly developed weapon called a "cluster bomb"-failed to explode when they hit the ground, leaving the landscape littered with millions of unexploded bombs, as dangerous today as when they fell from the sky three decades ago.
Dubbed "bombies" by Laotian villagers, these eye-catching but deadly orbs, as brightly colored as exotic fruit, are still found by children playing in shallow dirt, in the clefts of bamboo branches, or in the furrows of fields where farmers still till the soil by striking the earth with a hoe.
In the last three decades more than 12,000 people, many of them children, have been killed or injured by bombies or other unexploded ordnance (weapons). With an estimated 90 million cluster bombs dropped on Laos, many experts consider Laos to be the most heavily ordnance-contaminated country in the world. Bombies tells the untold story of the deadly legacy of unexploded cluster bombs in Laos through the personal experiences of villagers, activists and others who courageously deal with them on a daily basis.
Award(s):
•Gold Hugo (Documentary-Social/Political), Chicago International Film Festival
•NHK's Japan Prize-Adult Division
•Golden Gate Award, San Francisco International Film Festival
•Best of Festival and Best of Category (Issues of War and Peace), Vermont International Film Festival
•Special Prize for Environmental Education, Ökomedia Festival, Freiburg
•Honourable Mention, Columbus International Film Festival
•First Place in Category, EarthVision Environmental Film Festival
