Vladimir Shevchenko's Footage Inside Chernobyl Reactor 4

Posted by Debbie Lang | June 25, 2019

Ukrainian filmmaker Vladimir Shevchenko embarked on creating this Chernobyl documentary just three days after the nuclear power plant disaster. Shevchenko was granted permission to fly over the site so that he could document the efforts of the liquidators as they began their work to clean up the plant. He also documented the work being done to evacuate and decontaminate the rest of the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. Shevchenko, who was working for Ukrainian TV at the time, was unaware of the dangers he was putting himself in. His most haunting footage is of the interior of the building that housed Chernobyl's Reactor 4. He realized later that the 35 mm film he'd been using had been contaminated by radioactive particles, which show up as spots on the screen. He had essentially been recording the face of radiation. Shevchenko died less than a year later on March 30, 1987 from acute radiation syndrome. The official title of Vladimir Shevchenko's documentary is Chernobyl: A Chronicle of Difficult Weeks. Related Article: Chernobyl: History vs. Hollywood