Ploughshares Fund at Sundance

Countdown to Zero, a new documentary from Participant Productions, premiered this week at the Sundance Film Festival to outstanding reviews.  "A politically urgent picture, it will literally scare the breath out of what will certainly be a worldwide audience," wrote the reviewer in Variety.  The film includes extensive interviews with Ploughshares Fund's Joe Cirincione, pictured here with director Lucy Walker and producer Lawrence Bender.  Executive producers also include Bruce Blair and Matt Brown of the Ploughshares-funded Global Zero.  In an unforgettable interview, Valerie Plame Wilson (right) describes al Qaeda's efforts to acquire or produce a nuclear weapon. "It's The Bourne Identity meets Dr. Strangelove," said Cirincione following the screening. "One of the best films about nuclear weapons ever done."  Interviewed by Kenneth Turan in the Los Angeles Times, director Walker says that she chose to end the film  with a sense of hope. "I remember when the Berlin Wall fell and suddenly intractable problems get solved," she says. "I wanted to encourage the public to raise their voice. A breakthrough is closer than we think."