LEAD Agency and OFX to screen ‘Silkwood’ with panel discussion on Feb. 10

Oklahoma City, Okla. — The Oklahoma Film Exchange and Local Environmental Action Demanded (LEAD) Agency, Inc. are hosting a screening of the film, “Silkwood,” followed by a panel discussion at 6pm on Tuesday, Feb. 10 at 701 W Sheridan Ave. in Oklahoma City.

Ticket admission is donation based and will be first-come, first-served seating. Doors will open 45 minutes prior to 6pm. A panel discussion featuring special guests will follow the screening. The audience will learn about Oklahoma’s history of nuclear resistance and current nuclear energy issues in Oklahoma.

The Oklahoma Film Exchange is a microcinema, event venue, and community gathering space. The co-op movement hosts public and private events for artists, filmmakers, and creators of all kinds. The cinema is located inside the Paramount Building in the historic Film Row neighborhood in Oklahoma City's West Village, on the corner of W Sheridan Ave. and N Lee Ave.

LEAD Agency, an environmental justice nonprofit based in Miami, Okla., seeks to raise awareness about the effects of contamination on human health and the environment. Through public education, outreach, action, involvement with appropriate government agencies, and litigation, LEAD works to organize a citizen response toward cleanup and restoration of environmental harms, while striving for pollution prevention and environmental sustainability.

The film “Silkwood” is based on a true story of Oklahoma nuclear whistleblower, Karen Silkwood, a technician and union activist at the Kerr-McGee Nuclear Plant in Crescent. A mom of three children, Silkwood began working at the plant in 1972, which processed uranium and plutonium to fuel nuclear power plants. 

The film follows Silkwood during her two year career at the Kerr-McGee plant where she handled small plutonium pellets from a glove box meant to protect workers. Silkwood and her other colleagues were poisoned with radiation while working under unsafe conditions. Silkwood was first contaminated in July 1974 and not only was plutonium found in her body, but also in her home. 

A member of the Oil, Chemical, and Atomic Workers' Union, Silkwood offered to gather evidence for the group, including radioactive exposures, safety violations, falsified factory reports and reports of missing plutonium. 

"’Silkwood’ reminds us of what we learned and must remember,” said Rebecca Jim, executive director of LEAD Agency.

It’s now been 51 years since Silkwood’s passing. On her way to talk to a New York Times Reporter on Nov. 13, 1974, her car crashed into a culvert on a two-lane highway, and she was pronounced dead at the scene. She was 28-years-old. Her death was ruled an accident by highway patrol.

Silkwood was believed to have evidence with her documenting the allegations, but no documents were found at the accident site. It’s been alleged that her death was not an accident, and she may have been struck by another vehicle that pushed her off the road. Her autopsy revealed high amounts of plutonium, between 25 percent and 50 percent of the permissible lifetime body burden allowed by the Atomic Energy Commission for plutonium workers, according to legal records. 

The film screening is part of an effort by environmental advocates, including the Oklahoma Environmental Coalition, to raise awareness of Oklahoma's efforts to bring nuclear energy online as more energy-intensive projects, like data centers, are being built across the region.

“Our state is considering nuclear energy to support a massive influx of data centers, not to serve our communities, but to power corporate interests,” said Madison Lovell, Statewide Organizer with the Oklahoma Environmental Coalition. “Data centers strain our water supplies, drive up utility and land costs while leaving locals to pay the price. Nuclear energy is not clean, and Oklahoma should not be treated as an experiment for big tech companies.”

In June 2025, Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt signed into law Senate Bill 130, which directs the Oklahoma Corporation Commission (OCC), a regulatory agency, to conduct a comprehensive feasibility study on nuclear energy generation in the state. The study will need to be completed and its findings given to state officials by March 9. 

For more information about the screening event, visit www.oklahomafilmexchange.com/events/lead-x-ofx-silkwood-1983

Press contacts:

M. Bailey Stephenson, education and engagement coordinator at LEAD Agency, bailey@leadagency.org

Kimberly Barker, communications director at LEAD Agency, media@leadagency.org