Screenings: "Countdown to Zero" and "On Coal River"

Producer Lawrence Bender and Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.)

Valerie Plame, a former covert CIA agent, in a scene from the film

Poster from the movie

The door to a missile arsenal in a scene from the film

Screening for On Coal River Ed Wiley and Maria Lambert, the stars of "On Coal River"

Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I.) co-hosted the screening

Rep. Heath Shuler (D-N.C.) co-hosted the screening

Two new documentary films drew large audiences to their Washington screenings this month.

"Countdown to Zero" addresses the threat of nuclear proliferation, and Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) co-hosted a screening of the film on Tuesday night at Gallery Place. The film was produced by Lawrence Bender, the producer behind another groundbreaking documentary, the 2006 documentary "An Inconvenient Truth."

After winning an Oscar for the film about global warming, Bender said he was speaking former E-Bay president Jeff Skoll about other threats to the future of mankind. They both agreed that nuclear proliferation was at the top of the list. Three years later, "Countdown to Zero" hopes to galvanize support for eliminating the world's nuclear weapons. The film opens nationwide on July 23.

The second documentary film, "On Coal River," was screened recently in the Capitol Visitors Center before a packed house. The film follows the quest of former coal miner Ed Wiley to clean up the toxic air and water of his hometown in the Coal River Valley of West Virginia. Frustrated with the response of local inspectors and politicians, Wiley embarks upon a one-man walk to Washington, D.C., in order to appeal to the late Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.), who makes a moving cameo in the film.

The screening was co-hosted by Reps. Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I.) and Heath Shuler (D-N.C.).

— Report and photographs by Christina Wilkie