DamNation

2014
7.6| 1h27m| en
Details

This powerful film odyssey across America explores the sea change in national attitude from pride in big dams as engineering wonders to the growing awareness that our own future is bound to the life and health of our rivers.

Director

Producted By

Stoecker Ecological

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Reviews

GamerTab That was an excellent one.
Dotsthavesp I wanted to but couldn't!
Allison Davies The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.
Juana what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.
bearblackhawk22 Preserving the environment is one thing. Admirable. But as usual the national geographic channel glamorizes and ostensibly promotes vandalism of property and environmental extremism. Putting forth the notion that regression or devolution is a better place to be when It's not. In fact their own blindness to the resilience of the earth is amazing. Acknowledging the truth that in the pantheon of all time, Mans impact on the earth is no more than that of the dinosaurs. In a million years from now the earth will have moved on as it did with those same dinosaurs.Enough propaganda already.
Jordan Staub Excellent documentary. From the beginning of this film, the history and juxtaposition of MAN vs. Nature is present. The cinematography and the use if imagery by the videographer is impeccable and bold. The narration is wonderful and the interviews are actually very well done and humorous. The non-censored and comical yet serious nature of the narration really gives the film the added push, thanks to Ben Knight, director.The film generates awareness and also captures these brilliant yet detrimental accomplishments of man; and goes to show the areas affected by this phenomenon. The takeaway message is: "take away the dams that are not useful". Find me someone that disagree's with this statement and i'll show you an individual that has not seen this film.
MartinHafer 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.
karenr 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.

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