The Bomb went off last night at Gotham Hall ushering in the beginning of the end of the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival. A compelling audio/visual spectacle that you can get a sneak peek of below, the work is a quizzical choice as a festival closer because it’s quite bleak. But, given the way other things have fallen in line at this year’s fete, perhaps it’s appropriate. In our books, the 15th edition of Tribeca will be remembered as being a bit of a downer. It’s not due to a lack of quality, but rather the subject matter of the programming. The fest celebrated Taxi Driver, one of the most disturbing films of all time, featured some very sobering documentaries, saw audiences select a slow-burn post-apocalyptic thriller as its favorite film of the festival, and ended with a reminder that nuclear weapons are an imminent threat. It’s no wonder why there were so many happy hours at the festival’s hub.

Co-directed by Smriti Keshari, Eric Schlosser, and Kevin Ford, The Bomb is a live multimedia installation that traces the history of nuclear weapons. It features an experimental documentary film that is projected on eight 30-foot screens that surround the audience, while electronic band The Acid perform a live score. Radiohead artist Stanley Donwood also created original animation for the piece. The work reminded us of Massive Attack V Adam Curtis, an ambitious site-specific event that bowed at the Park Avenue Armory in 2013 which also integrated film, music and politics. For the Curtis and Massive Attack project, the creators criticized wealth and politics over the last 30 years and tried to motivate the audience to action. The Bomb works similarly, but its focus is keenly on nuclear weapons.

With The Bomb, viewers are confronted with images of nuclear explosions, North Korean military parades, and the aftermath of the atomic bombings in Japan during World War II. One of the most powerful moments of the work comes towards the end. As bombs are exploding, the voice of Ronald Reagan can be heard uttering a quote from his 1985 Inaugural Address, “We seek the total elimination one day of nuclear weapons from the face of the earth.”

The Acid, which consists of LA-based singer-songwriter Ry X, electronic artist Steve Nalepa, multi-instrumentalist Jens Kuross, and Grammy-nominated British dance producer and DJ Adam Freeland, created a gloriously haunting, synth-heavy live soundtrack for the piece. You can listen to a sample track below.

Inspiration for creating The Bomb came from Eric Schlosser’s 2013 book Command and Control, which details nuclear accidents that have taken place over the years. Filmmaker Robert Kenner was also interested in the book, and made his own documentary titled Command and Control, which also premiered at Tribeca this year. Kenner’s film, which plays out as a riveting thriller, focuses on the events surrounding an explosion at the Titan II nuclear site outside Little Rock, Arkansas in 1980. If you missed it at Tribeca, Command and Control will open at the Film Forum in New York on September 14. You can visit the film’s website for more details.

At the conclusion of The Bomb, audience members were given a brochure with little-known facts about nuclear weapons and a website to visit for more information: http://www.thebombnow.com.

The Bomb screens at the Tribeca Film Festival again tonight at 7pm and 10pm. The creators of the project also hope to bring it to San Francisco, Los Angeles, London, Berlin, Paris, Sydney, and other locations in the coming months.

(photos by Mindy Bond)