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To Use a Mountain

Play trailer 1:39 Poster for To Use a Mountain Aug 2026 1h 39m Documentary Play Trailer Watchlist
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In 1982, six rural communities across the United States were notified that all of the nation's nuclear waste might be buried beneath them forever. Faced with a mandate to isolate the waste for 10,000 years, the Department of Energy mapped, analyzed, and assembled its assessments, while the unsuspecting stewards of sacrificial territory found themselves fighting for their homes, health, history and dignity. In the end, one site was chosen: a desert ridge in Nevada called Yucca Mountain, on the unceded lands of the Western Shoshone. After decades of controversy, construction at Yucca Mountain was halted, and to this day, no permanent solution has been devised for America's 90,000 tons of high-level nuclear waste. Against the impassive logic of government analysis and archives, TO USE A MOUNTAIN assembles a people's history of resistance and stewardship through a visceral journey across the landscapes, ecologies, and personal histories of the candidate sites. Farmers, miners, citizen scientists, Native American leaders, and activists--each with a story bound to this enduring threat--stand in stark contrast to the cold, silent machinery of bureaucracy, in a meditation on resistance, memory, and the timeless struggle between power and place.

Critics Reviews

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Joel Copling Spectrum Culture 10h
The form of To Use a Mountain is hardly groundbreaking. The point of it, though, is to send the warning to a future that is both uncertain and frightening. Go to Full Review Avi Offer NYC Movie Guru 2d
A dull, dry and poorly edited documentary. Go to Full Review Dhruv Goyal In Review Online 6d
To Use a Mountain — unintentionally, of course — risks repeating history’s cruelty itself, then, by compressing as opposed to capturing these people’s stories. Go to Full Review Read all reviews
To Use a Mountain

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Cast & Crew

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Casey Carter

Director

Jonna McKone

Producer

Colleen Cassingham

Producer

Ryan Krivoshey

Executive Producer

Maida Lynn

Executive Producer

Brett Story

Executive Producer
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To Use a Mountain

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To Use a Mountain

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Movie Info

Synopsis In 1982, six rural communities across the United States were notified that all of the nation's nuclear waste might be buried beneath them forever. Faced with a mandate to isolate the waste for 10,000 years, the Department of Energy mapped, analyzed, and assembled its assessments, while the unsuspecting stewards of sacrificial territory found themselves fighting for their homes, health, history and dignity. In the end, one site was chosen: a desert ridge in Nevada called Yucca Mountain, on the unceded lands of the Western Shoshone. After decades of controversy, construction at Yucca Mountain was halted, and to this day, no permanent solution has been devised for America's 90,000 tons of high-level nuclear waste. Against the impassive logic of government analysis and archives, TO USE A MOUNTAIN assembles a people's history of resistance and stewardship through a visceral journey across the landscapes, ecologies, and personal histories of the candidate sites. Farmers, miners, citizen scientists, Native American leaders, and activists--each with a story bound to this enduring threat--stand in stark contrast to the cold, silent machinery of bureaucracy, in a meditation on resistance, memory, and the timeless struggle between power and place.
Director
Casey Carter
Producer
Jonna McKone, Colleen Cassingham
Distributor
Grasshopper Film
Genre
Documentary
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
Aug 21, 2026, Limited
Runtime
1h 39m
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