Damnation is a film documenting the detrimental effects of dams on the environment, salmon runs, and the people living around dams. The narrator and co-director of this film, Ben Knight, was approached to make this by Patagonia, a large outdoor clothing retailer, which has been attempting to fund environmental causes. The documentary starts with pretty typical shots of a lush green environment and tilts up to a broken concrete dam, imagery entire visually reperesentative of this entire documentary. Damnation interviews many different sources. It interviews biologists, engineers, grassroots activists, but also people who are pro-dam, mostly from archival footage and footage taken at public events. It does interview a man who worked at a dam that was being removed and how that affected him.

This was a very well made documentary that does a really good job of informing and persuading the audience. Though the narrator is distant from the start, it becomes more personal, especially with some of his humor. The format of this documentary combines a lot of different elements, including a lot of graphics and anmimation to provide some playfulness but also persuasive reenactment. It has the typical talking heads that interact with B-Roll in a really effective way through editing. It also uses truly stunning cinematography to captivate the viewer in a way that doesn’t separate from the issue or from the emotions connected to it, unlike the film Home, which might have made the audience feel disconnected from the issues.

This film really exposes the detrimental effects of some dams in the US. While there are many dams in the US, most of them do not provide hydropower. Dams also inhibit paths of many species in this big rivers. Dams also keep sediment from naturally flowing into the river, building up and creating pollution in the river behind the dam. It also showed how particular dams prevent Native Americans from traditional fishing and living off of the land. It also looked at a particular case in the Lower Snake River Dams in the Pacific Northwest, where the dams do not provide much in the way of power or irrigation, and mostly serve as navigation with huge locks to carry ships through. However, there is a functioning freight railway line that runs the same route as the dammed river. A civil engineer ran a study on the dams, calling them redundant and his authorities ignored them. The documentary really helps construct this example of redundant dams of how they are doing more harm then good.

There are some problems with the film. One is that it very much concentrates on salmon and how dams are devastating to them, and focuses less on other species being harmed as well as human populations in terms of displacement. This focus on salmon can be a little repetitive at times in the film. It also uses a sentimental score which whole works at times, other times feels rather kitschy and out of place with the rest of the film.

Overall, this documentary was effective in going into detail the problems with many dams in this country. In terms of motivating people to do something, it has a petition that people can sign at the end of the film by texting to a number, which will send them the link. I don’t believe that petitions are always really effective, and I don’t think this documentary will change the mind of people who are for dams. However, it is definitely effective of informing the public of a lesser-known issue and of the grassroots organizations working to remove dams. Because of this, it might motivate people to join the organizations in their areas. It also showcases the filmmakers doing large-scale protest art on a large dam, which might encourage some more radical activism. Some of the pro-dam activism reminded me of the Hartland Institute described in Naomi Klein’s This Changes Everything, with everything going into ignoring the facts.This was a very well orchestrated and beautifully shot documentary and I hope it does inspire change.