Some films entertain. And then there are films that demand to be seen, that linger long after the credits roll, and that shift something fundamental in the way you understand the world. To Use a Mountain is the latter, and it is arriving at exactly the right moment.
Directed by filmmaker and interdisciplinary designer Casey Carter, To Use a Mountain is a visceral, deeply human, and extraordinarily crafted documentary that tells the story of what happened when six rural communities across the United States were quietly notified in 1982 that their land had been selected as a potential burial site for the entirety of America’s nuclear waste. Forever.
What unfolded over the decades that followed was one of the most remarkable and overlooked stories of resistance, stewardship, and the timeless struggle between power and place in modern American history. Farmers, miners, citizen scientists, Native American leaders, and activists, each with a story bound to this enduring and deeply personal threat, stood in stark contrast to the cold, silent machinery of government bureaucracy. In the end, one site was chosen: Yucca Mountain in Nevada, on the unceded lands of the Western Shoshone. Construction was eventually halted after decades of controversy. And to this day, no permanent solution has been found for America’s 90,000 tons of high-level nuclear waste.
The film has already earned extraordinary recognition on the global festival circuit, winning a Special Jury Award at Visions du Réel in Switzerland at its World Premiere, earning a Best Feature Honorable Mention at DOXA in Vancouver, and being selected as Best of Fest at IDFA in Amsterdam, among many other accolades.
To Use a Mountain opens theatrically at DCTV in New York on Friday, August 21st, with a regional theatrical expansion to follow. A VOD release via Grasshopper Film will occur in 2027.
This is cinema at its most urgent, most human, and most necessary.