A conversation with filmmaker Robert Frye

[Robert E. Frye is an Emmy Award-winning producer and director of news and documentaries. His most recent film, “In Search of Resolution,” is the third in a series on the continuing challenge of dealing with nuclear weapons. It was preceded by “In My Lifetime” in 2013 and “The Nuclear Requiem” in 2016. Earlier in his career, Mr. Frye produced broadcasts at ABC News, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and Public Television in the United States. He was executive producer of ABC World News. Tonight with Peter Jennings, executive producer of Good Morning America, and the creator of World News This Morning. He founded his own independent production company in 1988.

Following are edited excerpts from a conversation that can be seen in its entirety on IPPNW’s YouTube channel.]

This is your third film about the dangers posed by nuclear weapons. What compelled you to take up this issue more than a decade ago, and what keeps you at it?

Well, I think what keeps me at it is this story isn’t over. It continues and is much more complex in many ways today, in part because of the war in Ukraine. I think it’s a challenge for all of us to understand the dangers that nuclear weapons themselves create and to change the dynamic, both in terms of their use and also in terms of the attitudes of people around the world. 

One of my chores, I think, over the last 10, 12 years, has been to have these films out there to make people aware of not only the dangers, but the underlying dynamics of the nine nuclear-weapon states, as well as the other states in the world. The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), obviously is a new start, if you will, in looking at ways to resolve the ongoing challenges. And although it’s only been two or three years, I think it’s made progress.

The first part of the film focuses on the Ukraine war and the frightening implications of that conflict for a nuclear-armed world. What lessons do you think we should be taking from the Ukraine war when it comes to making the case for the elimination of nuclear weapons?

The most obvious one is they still exist. How do we change the underlying dynamic of that situation? One of the things I feel the film does present, again—all three films, in one way or the other, have told the story of the HIbakusha—those who actually have experienced and survived the bombings in Hiroshima Nagasaki. But as you also know, it’s not just the bombings themselves. Two thousand nuclear tests took place—more than a thousand of them in the United States alone. I was just reading an article a couple of days ago about those of a certain age who have in their bones, literally, the results of the bombings from that period of time, particularly in the late 1940s and 50s and into the 60s. How do we change that underlying presence, if you will, of the continuing use or possible use of nuclear weapons? I think that’s really the underlying question, given the facts that we all know—those in the nuclear-weapon states as well as those in the non-nuclear weapon states. If you sit down and have a conversation with anyone and explain the results of the testing and the use in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, I think everyone can get it. So, as is reflected in the film, who’s going to make the first move to move away from those weapons that still exist?

I mean, certainly the TPNW was an initiative to change the kind of stasis that we seem to be in when it comes to the nuclear weapons states. That’s really one of the great challenges that we face. Who is going to make a move?

God forbid there is any further use of nuclear weapons as has been threatened by Mr. Putin. There are a lot of interpretations as to why he’s made the threat. Some of them are presented in this film.  What is it that’s going to wake people up to the fact that they’re not needed?

You’ve, you’ve said about this film that it “looks to the future, profiling individuals and organizations working to answer the question, regardless of which side of the story they are on.” What guided you in your decisions about whose voices to present in this film? And do some voices matter more than others?

I’ll let you answer that question and I’ll tell you what I tried to do. What did you respond to in terms of the folks who are speaking in the film?

I had different responses to different people. Some of them have been doing this work for years and not getting anywhere and are trying to figure out why. And then there was a whole group of young people who know that they’re going to be inheriting these things and are determined to do something different about it. It was the young people I think who, who really sort of grabbed my attention the most.

You’ve answered the question and stated the purpose of the film. I mean, those who have been around for a long time, I think, share the wisdom and the experiences of what has happened over the past 78 years. And even those voices in the film who represent the nuclear-weapon states are telling the story in the way that they know it. But one of the purposes of this film is to present the voices of the young, because after all, as we both appreciate, they’re the ones that are going to inherit this. And I think that by making this film, particularly this film, I wanted to leave them with the legacy of what has occurred over the past 78 years, because they’re going to have to deal with the future. At the same time, I think there’s knowledge that they can acquire and information that they can develop. I think that’s really the purpose of this documentary—to put together the information in a way that is comprehensible.

The purpose of filming at both the TPNW as well as the humanitarian conference in Vienna was to show initiatives that are taking place. The NPT continues to go through its cycle, but my opinion about that is I think we’re better with the NPT than we are without it. I mean, I know there are arguments on many ways that it’s a spent force maybe, but at least there’s a challenge of trying find consensus, which, as reflected in this documentary was not achieved in the last round in August 2022. [Ed: this conversation took place just before the NPT PrepCom in Vienna failed to produce a factual summary because consensus was blocked.]

One set of voices to which you’ve already alluded—the survivors of the US atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the victims of nuclear testing—are prominent in this film. Their stories and their testimony made a big impact during the international conferences and negotiations that produced the ban treaty. The remaining Hibakusha are nearing the end of their lives. What do you think is the significance of the loss of those first-hand accounts to future nuclear disarmament issue efforts? And how do we make up for that loss when they’re gone?

I feel that the voices have to be heard. I mean, films can present their voices, but it’s not the same effect as hearing a living voice. I think it is very dependent also on historians and schools and other places to present and make sure the memory doesn’t go away. But the voices of the living Hibakusha still labor to make sure that folks understand the underlying realities of the bombs. 

I was very interested in the word resolution in the title of the film. That word has two meanings: the act of being determined or resolute, and the outcome of something that needed to be resolved. Both meanings, it seems to me, apply here, and I expect that was deliberate. Can you say something about your own search for resolution in both senses, and what will it take for us to acquire the resolution to act while we still have time?

The first film was “In my lifetime.” I was born at the beginning of the nuclear age. “Requiem” was sort of midstream, if you will. And the third piece, which I’ve now fortunately been able to finish, “In Search of Resolution,” continues to be a search. And I feel that for my own personal reasons, I wanted to be able to provide information that the younger generations could work with. We don’t know what the solution’s going to be, but I think it’s important to continue searching for it.

Learn more about Robert Frye and his other documentary films about nuclear weapons.

Watch the trailer for “In Search of Resolution”