i don't think anyone here would accuse lawrence bender of being clergyman o theologian. isn't that right? ok. thank you very much. but i will point this out. whether intentionally or not, lawrence bender and the others associated with this film, an extraordinary film, what they have done is aim at the heart of what theologians describe as the two tendencies, twin tendencies, which must be repudiated. the first tendency is to trivialize the nuclear horror or to become so accustomed to the possibility of it you see that we lose our sense of outrage, of indignation at the idea of it all. and the second twin tendency is to become so pessimistic about the future, you see, as to acquiesce to it in helplessness. and so both indifference and pessimism are inappropriate. theologians say. i say more than inappropriate. they're wrongheaded. they are the sins of omission if not comission, this indifference and this pessimism, and this extraordinary film "countdown to zero" i think goes right at them. lawrence, did you know that? maybe not. but you have. on behalf of my fem low faith

i will turn to jeff who will introduce lawrence bender. >> thank you for coming. on behalf of participant media i am delighted to say a few words on our new film. as a bit of a background, i started participant to be a media company focused on social change in the biggest issues in the world. since that time, we have released 23 films that have been nominated for 17 academy awards including such films as charlie -- such films as "charlie wilson's war." we have also won oscars twice. the film, "countdown to zero," started a year ago. everyone was talking about terrorism, but nuclear weapons was off the radar. like we had done with climate change, we wanted to do a film about nuclear-weapons to get it back on the public agenda. as it happened, one of my first calls was to lawrence bender who i had worked with. he pointed me to matt brown and bruce blair. very quickly, we all agreed to do a film together. the film is part of a major public awareness campaign that we are launching in partnership with global zero. it will be a coalition of 50 or so online coalitions. b

the other hand, this film countdown to zero which is produced by participant productions and lawrence benderho produced "inconvenient truth" and a range of other very important documentaries on critical issues today, spells out very clearly the accidents that have -- and the almost catastrophic nuclear accidents that have taken place, even with all of those safeguards, and we look at the rest of the world where there are so many states where there is highly enriched youraniu uranium, probably about ten states that are of enormous concern that have quantities of highly enriched uranium. i do not want to pick out any one of those states. >> what is the temperature in the region of the word you have lived in for so long and you still visit so often, there's all this talk if iran goes further, the further they get, that other people in the neighborhood will feel the pressure, that the saudis who certainly have the resources could go out and build a nuclear program, other countries in the region how is that part of the discussion? >> the region t arab states have since the nuclear nonproliferatio