Television Event

Synopsis

Television Event is an archive-based feature documentary that views the dramatic climax of the Cold War through the lens of a commercial television network, as it narrowly succeeds in producing the most watched, most controversial made-for-TV movie, The Day After (1983).

With irreverent humor and sobering apocalyptic vision, this film reveals how a commercial broadcaster seized a moment of unprecedented television viewership, made an emotional connection with an audience of over 100 million, and forced an urgent conversation with the US President on how to collectively confront and resolve the most pressing issue of the time — nuclear proliferation.

Release Date:2020

Duration:91 min.

ISBN:978-1-893521-16-2

Subtitles:English

Trailers

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Filmmaker Credits

Producer, Director, Writer

Jeff Daniels

Producer

Amanda Spain

Editors

Eileen Meyer, Aaron Wickenden

Cinematographer

Nick Higgins

Composer

T. Griffin

Filmmaker Biographies

Jeff Daniels

Producer, Director, Writer

Jeff Daniels is a multi-award winning producer/director specializing in feature-length documentaries. His latest film Television Event met overwhelming critical acclaim at Tribeca 2021 and has since won multiple awards. His first film, The 10 Conditions of Love (2009 - ABC), made international headlines for highlighting China’s arbitrary imprisonment of the Uyghur. His film Mother with a Gun (2016 - Netflix) went inside the militant Jewish Defense League, Fair Game (2017 - SBS) exposed systemic racism in within the Australian Football League, and City of Joel (2018 - Samuel Goldwyn Films) documented the controversial land expansion of a Hasidic community in New York.

Awards

Sydney Film Festival Best Australian Documentary (Special Mention) 2021

Pyeongchang International Peace Film Festival Grand Jury Prize 2022

Sidewalk Film Festival Programmers’ Feature Film Award 2021

RiverRun Film Festival Best Director of a Documentary Feature 2021

Footcandle Film Festival Audience Favourite Feature Award 2021

Uranium International Film Festival Best Documentary Feature 2022

Resources: Downloads and Related Links

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Praise

"Television Event is a compelling account of a unique moment of intersection in the history of American entertainment and US foreign policy. It shows how a small group of storytellers dramatized the reality of nuclear war and rallied a country and its president to embrace change. Moving in its own right, Television Event deserves a wide audience and a place in contemporary discussion of how entertainment should respond to the global challenges of our times."

— Nicholas J Cull, USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism

"A blast...witty, moving and engaging"

— The Hollywood Reporter

"Television Event offers a brilliant and compelling account of the improbable production of ABC’s made-for-TV movie The Day After, a film made and released as consummate Cold Warrior Ronald Reagan was arguing against a nuclear freeze and for a continuing build-up of weapons in the name of so-called deterrence. By turns horrifying, incisive, and sometimes laugh-out-loud funny, Television Event chronicles the efforts of an unlikely group of writers, directors, actors, and producers to make a film graphically representing the impact of nuclear war on a midwestern community. By vividly documenting the massive constraints on making commercial media critical of militarism and the Cold War arms race, this film highlights the continued importance of media-making that challenges war-making by asking us to confront the impact of war on the civilian populations that must pay its price."

Carol A. Stabile
Professor of Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies at the University of Oregon and author of The Broadcast 41: Women and the Anti-Communist Blacklist

"Absolutely riveting, highly entertaining...oddly funny...a wild ride."

— Deadline Hollywood

"At a time when fears of international conflicts escalating to nuclear war are again rising, Television Event delivers a powerful reminder of how a controversial 1983 movie galvanized many Americans and helped to move the United States and the Soviet Union away from the brink of a dangerous confrontation. “The Day After” became a classroom topic across America in the early 1980s. It deserves to be discussed in classes again today, and Television Event offers a much-needed spur."

— David Foglesong
Professor of History at Rutgers University and author of The American Mission and the “Evil Empire”

"Under the Reagan administration, nuclear warfare became a concern for many, but it may have taken a seemingly ordinary made-for-TV movie to allow Americans to come to terms with the bipartisan nature of this far-reaching issue. Forty years after the airing of The Day After, and in a “post-Cold War setting,” Television Event highlights the extent to which our world is still as precarious as it was during the Cold War. While this documentary can and should draw many audiences, it is a must see for those who are interested in popular culture and its impact on audience perceptions of foreign policy."

— Diana Cucuz
Adjunct Professor of History at University of Toronto

"Entertaining...[full of] vivid inside storytellers"

— Variety

"As entertaining as it is profound...gem of an historical document."

— Hammer to Nail

"Smartly structured...a celebration of art."

— The Moveable Fest

"Suburb...highly comedic...its impact truly hits home."

— Pop Matters

"No single event in television history had more of an impact than the Friday night in 1983 when more than 100 million people watched The Day After, a dramatization of nuclear war that has not lost its power with the passage of time. This chilling documentary drives home the historic import of that singular film. We see how producers and writers fought tooth and nail to get it right, and to get it on air. We see how it triggered enormous political controversy. We see how it changed the foreign policy of the Cold War. But perhaps most striking is to see how the film traumatized the actors, many of them amateurs, who vicariously experienced the horrors of nuclear war simply by playing their roles. Anyone who remembers The Day After, and anyone who wants to understand the nuclear history of the United States, should watch this film."

— Kenneth Osgood
Author of Total Cold War: Eisenhower's Secret Propaganda Battle at Home and Abroad

"Engrossing and profound... Takeaway - the power of art is real"

— Screen Radar

"A brilliant, important film. In an era when the threat of nuclear war has returned, it is critical that we all remember what the reality of nuclear fear looks like. Television Event carefully contextualizes the The Day After, placing it within the moment when the global anti-nuclear movement confronted Soviet and American brinksmanship. The movie captures the key moment when nuclear fear made its way into the American living room."

— Margaret Peacock
Associate Professor of History at University of Alabama

"9/10...focused and honest...a riveting study of a landmark film"

— Blu-ray.com

"This absorbing documentary returns us to an extraordinary moment in the politics and popular culture of 1980s America ... Fast-paced and gripping, Television Event explores not only the story behind The Day After's unlikely production and its searing impact on television viewers, but also its influence on Ronald Reagan himself, who pivoted from endorsing the idea of a limited nuclear war to the realization that such a war must never come to pass. A powerful film about how culture can shape history.”

— Natasha P. Zaretsky
author of Radiation Nation: Three Mile Island and the Political Transformation of the 1970s