DamNation

DamNation really surprised me - very fascinating, very compelling, and I didn't go in already converted. An excellent film - hats off to Travis Rummel and Ben Knight and also to Yvon Chouinard. The film is a real eye-opener. It avoids didactic, but makes you feel the power and importance of rivers to America. Who knew we have 70,000 dams in the US, most doing nothing useful at this point? I want everyone to see this film - it is really good, really exciting and really important. It is hard to make fish truly sympathetic, they are cold, scaly and expressionless. But this film has me convinced that anything able to swim 900 miles deserve our support, and the removal of a few dams doing nothing useful at this point.

Promoted and supported by Patagonia, DamNation takes an in depth look at an environmental issue which few Americans are aware of. This environmental documentary explores the importance of dams with reference to their history in America, influence on culture, impact on the environment, importance to agriculture, and energy efficiency. The main environmental issue concerning dams which is discussed throughout the film is the impact of dams on salmon spawning, America's response to salmon spawning with fish hatcheries, and the conservational inefficiency of (and harm caused by) fish hatcheries. The film also looks at the history of government funded dam construction and cultural backlash and call for dam removal. Not only have dams destroyed salmon spawning routs, but also flooded areas of incredible beauty and of immense cultural and historical importance to Native Americans. DamNation bring to light the hypocrisy and corruption behind the construction and maintenance of many major dams on rivers such as the Snake and Colorado. Released in 2014, this powerful and visually stunning documentary calls for major revisions and reevaluations of the value of all dams in the US. DamNation does a great job presenting the several different, complex issues surrounding dams in America, however it is biased. The film takes the effort to interview dam workers and hydro power supporters; however, the film mostly focuses on the negative effects of dams and why removal necessary. DamNation is considered both a documentary and adventure film. Documentaries often struggle to maintain the interest of the audience but DamNation is not just able to entertain the audience with action and visually beautiful shots, but also inspire them stand on environmental issues and to enjoy the outdoors. I would recommend this film to all young adults and anyone interested in environmental issues.

DamNation is a 2014 documentary that chronicles the history of dam building in the United States and shows how dam removal can be a strategy for restoring rivers. The film begins with scenic forest views with voiceover of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's speech at the dedication of Hoover Dam proclaiming the dam as a triumph in engineering. The speech seems to alienate the beauty and peacefulness of the flowing river. As the speech concludes, the opening shot holds a steady shot of a dam being removed. As the story unfolds, several dams in the Pacific Northwest are introduced, the history and purpose of each, and the current state of each dam. The film does a good job on introducing the idea of dam removal to someone who knows little about dams in an accessible and relatable format. DamNation spends much of the film explaining the social and environmental consequences caused by the damming of rivers from fish populations to the people who live near the bodies of water. The filmmakers present meaningful facts coupled with personal experiences for those who were negatively impacted by dams. For example, the amount of salmon and steelhead able to make the journey to spawn has diminished incredibly due to dams blocking the path. Even with fish ladders and elevators, salmon have a strenuous journey already, but dams make it nearly impossible. Additionally, the Elwha River Dam was built on Native American land in 1913 taking away a source of food for the nearby tribes and violating a treaty agreement. Another compelling argument is how much beauty has been lost at every dammed river. The only argument on the pro-dam side that worried me were how many jobs the hydroelectric supplied for small communities. Hydroelectricity was the main purpose for many dams, but many have outrun their usefulness and do not produce enough electricity staying open. Overall, the film gives insight into a topic few have much knowledge about. After watching I felt more educated on dams and their history in the United States. Going forward, I hope there is more education on the impacts of dams. In Georgia, all the lakes are manmade from damming up rivers for hydroelectricity plants, but some are no longer in use. Once researching if there were any deadbeat dams in Georgia and signed a petition to remove the Tugalo Dam. DamNation is a cool film that is worth the watch for anyone interested in water, fish, and activist art.

Should not be blocked by so many dams. The rivers are exactly like the veins in human body, once clogged, the heart suffered and the body died consequently. When I first read the review of spanatko12 July 2014 before I watched this documentary, I somewhat agreed what he said 90%. But after I've watched it, his review and his opinions on the necessity of the dams just to generate stable supply of electricity has suddenly became a "Yes" and "No" conclusion, and the "No" seemed to get the upper hand of my feeling. But to emphasize the importance of the salmon fishery and the salmon back-home journey culture, or salmons long ago were one of the main food sources for the Indians, building the dams impaired their incomes or salmon catching tradition, neither was what I considered the dams were not right; the only thing that I think important was the rivers, as long as they flow, should not be blocked whatsoever. All the rhetoric reasons or excuses simply won't stand. You block the flow of the river, you ruin the natural balance of the environment. "If I could choose between birds and airplanes, I'll choose birds", that's a very intelligent remark by Charles Lindbergh. Some elements of the nature should be improved by humans but building dams definitely is not one of such endeavors.

"Dams, irrigation and now climate change have drastically run the once-mighty Colorado River dry. "rom its source high in the Rocky Mountains, the Colorado River channels water south nearly 1,500 miles, over falls, through deserts and canyons, to the lush wetlands of a vast delta in Mexico and into the Gulf of California.

That is, it did so for six million years.

Then, beginning in the 1920s, Western states began divvying up the Colorado's water, building dams and diverting the flow hundreds of miles, to Los Angeles, San Diego, Phoenix and other fast-growing cities. The river now serves 30 million people in seven U.S. states and Mexico, with 70 percent or more of its water siphoned off to irrigate 3.5 million acres of cropland.

The damming and diverting of the Colorado, the nation's seventh-longest river, may be seen by some as a triumph of engineering and by others as a crime against nature, but there are ominous new twists. The river has been running especially low for the past decade, as drought has gripped the Southwest. It still tumbles through the Grand Canyon, much to the delight of rafters and other visitors. And boaters still roar across Nevada and Arizona's Lake Mead, 110 miles long and formed by the Hoover Dam. But at the lake's edge they can see lines in the rock walls, distinct as bathtub rings, showing the water level far lower than it once was-some 130 feet lower, as it happens, since 2000. Water resource officials say some of the reservoirs fed by the river will never be full again.

Climate change will likely decrease the river's flow by 5 to 20 percent in the next 40 years, says geo-scientist Brad Udall, director of the University of Colorado Western Water Assessment. Less precipitation in the Rocky Mountains will yield less water to begin with. Droughts will last longer. Higher overall air temperatures will mean more water lost to evaporation."

Dams only give you a dead pool of water, it clogged the natural flow of the rivers. It's just like the veins in the human body, when the blood circulation is blocked section after section, the human body will be dead. The Earth is like human body, the rivers are the veins of the Earth, once they are blocked, the Earth soon will be dead. And we are seeing it happens now.

This is a film that will delight folks who think that technology is ruining the world. Its basic premise seems to be that ALL dams are bad. And much of the time this documentary talks about how awful dams are. The film talks about how they kill people when they burst but most importantly they impede salmon from breeding. While there have been a few dam breaks (mostly a long time ago and talking about the Johnstown Flood of 1889 seemed WEIRD and disingenuous since it IS the 21st century) and it's undoubtedly true native salmon populations have been decimated, the film rarely explores the POSITIVES about dams or discusses whether SOME mitigating projects actually work (such as salmon hatcheries in Alaska). While a few folks are shown with contrasting views, mostly they seem like idiots and are overruled by the all-knowing narrator in the movie. The film also doesn't interview the right people--people with informed and scientific facts instead of emotions. I would have loved to have heard from biologists, geologists and the like--but mostly you have Native Americans, park rangers and activists--all people you might want to include ALONG WITH EXPERTS-- not in place of them.

The bottom line is that "DamNation" is clearly a film with a preconceived notion and it does all it can to support it and ignore things to the contrary (such as cheap and clean energy, jobs, increased farm production, etc.). It's a shame in a way, as technically this is a nice looking documentary. The graphics are great and the look of the film is lovely--hence why I give the film a 3 overall. For content, I would only give it a 1.

All of this is very sad, as I am a guy who probably would be towards the middle of this debate. I am an avid fisherman and feel we need to think and re-think many of the dam projects and other projects that negatively impact the environment. But, I think everything should be case by case. Dams are neither always bad or always good- -and anyone wanting to really learn more about this debate would be better advised to read some books instead.