A tribute to rivers, DamNation shows the tragic story of US rives that can sadly be transferred to any part of the world. Rivers, nature’s most intimate element, have been systematically destroyed for the past 120 years as we were installing dams with a view of generating electricity. And we have been very efficient –
A tribute to rivers, DamNation shows the tragic story of US rives that can sadly be transferred to any part of the world. Rivers, nature’s most intimate element, have been systematically destroyed for the past 120 years as we were installing dams with a view of generating electricity. And we have been very efficient – there is hardly a major river left intact, which has lately began to show in a number of negative consequences. For years, salmons have been unable to reach upper parts of river basins, where they would normally spawn, and are thus disappearing. The ecosystems surrounding original river courses have been impoverished, and so are lower river courses and the seas they are flowing into – these parts are no longer reached by sediments coming from the hills. Once you terminate the river flow, you terminate life.
DamNation is a film dedicated to activism, shattering the myth of hydroelectricity as a green energy source. Fortunately, the 1980’s crazy ideas on removing dams began to be actualised four years ago. To see huge shoals of salmons return to a river, or sunken canyons emerge once again from enormous reservoirs, or sandy sea coasts be formed again and riverside ecosystems come to life, it’s a storybook ending. Luckily, as shown in this incredible film, at least somewhere this fairy tale is coming true.
USA, 2014, 87min, directed by: Travis Rummel and Ben Knight
Organised by Kino Šiška and Leeway Collective Institute for the Promotion and Protection of Aquatic Ecosystems.
