TO USE A MOUNTAIN to Open Theatrically in New York This Summer
Casey Carter's documentary will screen at DCTV, exploring America's unresolved nuclear waste crisis.
TO USE A MOUNTAIN, a documentary film directed by Casey Carter, is set to open theatrically at DCTV in New York on August 21, with a regional expansion to follow. Presented by Facet, Narrow Vision Endeavors, and Correspondent Productions, the film traces the decades-long effort by the U.S. Department of Energy to find a permanent burial site for the country's 90,000 tons of high-level nuclear waste, focusing on the six rural communities notified in 1982 that their land could become that site, and on the Western Shoshone territory at Yucca Mountain in Nevada, which was ultimately selected before construction was halted. The film draws on government archives alongside accounts from farmers, miners, Native American leaders, citizen scientists, and activists connected to the candidate sites, and is currently screening with frontline communities confronting ongoing issues of nuclear waste and next-generation nuclear projects tied to AI data center energy demands. A VOD release through Grasshopper Film is planned for 2027.
A film by: Casey Carter Produced by: Colleen Cassingham, Jonna McKone Executive Producers: Brett Story, Maida Lynn, Ryan Krivoshey
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.
NEW TRAILER
ABOUT THE FILMMAKER
CASEY CARTER is a filmmaker and interdisciplinary designer whose work engages nonfiction storytelling in film and video, photography, data visualization, and cartography. His work centers on themes of governmentality, geography, environmentalism, and personal subjectivities. His short films, TWO BOYS AND A DREAM (2023), TWO PRISONS (2020), and THE RIGHTS OF NATURE (2019), have screened at festivals including Revolutions Per Minute, SF Shorts, Salem, Ashland Independent, and Hong Kong Film Art. He holds a B.S. in Physics and B.S. in Photography from Middle Tennessee State University and a Master of Architecture from the University of Michigan. His work has been supported through grants and fellowships from institutions including Sundance Documentary Film Program, IDA, UnionDocs Center for Documentary Art, New York Foundation for the Arts, The Marble House Project, Monson Arts, The Redford Center, SFFILM, Flies Collective, and others. He is the director, cinematographer, and editor of his first feature film, TO USE A MOUNTAIN, which premiered at Visions du Réel, where it won a Special Jury Award, and has gone on to collect accolades at film festivals across the globe.
Feature Documentary, USA, 2025 (Running time: 99 Minutes)
TO USE A MOUNTAIN received a Special Jury Award in the International Competition at Visions du Réel in Switzerland at its world premiere, and has since screened at DALLAS IFF, DOXA, IDFA, and Big Sky, among other festivals.
