Real Chernobyl

Real Chernobyl attempts to reconstruct the movements and actions of Thomas Garenq, the man who sold the first footage of the Chernobyl disaster to the American TV networks ABC and NBC. The images produced by Garenq were later revealed to be fabricated and filmed on the outskirts of Trieste. In an effort to trace Garenq’s steps, the video revisits the sites of this fabrication: the Cattinara Hospital complex, the Melara neighborhood, and the hotel room in downtown Trieste where he stayed and negotiated with the networks. The video was shot in the summer of 2019—at the time, the hottest June ever recorded—against the backdrop of the emerging climate emergency, as TV networks aired the series “Chernobyl” and wildfires began to spread. Sound design and music by Alessio Dutto.