DamNation

Showings

Mary D. Fisher Theatre Wed, Nov 5, 2014 4:00 PM
Mary D. Fisher Theatre Wed, Nov 5, 2014 7:00 PM

Description

The Sedona Film Festival and Sedona Friends of the Forest are jointly hosting a one-day-only film event honoring the 50th year of the National Wilderness Preservation Act and the 20th year of each host organization. The Nov. 5th event will feature documentary films sure to entertain and stimulate conversation.

Two films exploring the condition and future of our nation's and region's rivers will be presented on Nov. 5, at 4 and 7 p.m. at the Mary D. Fisher Theatre.  Feature documentary film "DamNation" and documentary short "Quartzite's Fall: A Wilderness Tale" challenge the premise of engineering the "naturalness" out of American waterways.  Attitudes and policies toward dams, reservoirs and rivers are undergoing examination.  The value of natural watersheds is emerging. And not without controversy.

“DamNation” — a powerful film odyssey across America — explores the sea change in our 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. Dam removal has moved beyond the fictional Monkey Wrench Gang to go mainstream. Where obsolete dams come down, rivers bound back to life, giving salmon and other wild fish the right of return to primeval spawning grounds, after decades without access. “DamNation’s” majestic cinematography and unexpected discoveries move through rivers and landscapes altered by dams, but also through a metamorphosis in values, from conquest of the natural world to knowing ourselves as part of nature.

The screening of “DamNation” will be preceded by the short film “Quartzite’s Fall: A Wilderness Tale”. The destruction of a legendary class V+ white water rapid is investigated in this award-winning short film. Federal Agents arrest eight men for blowing up Quartzite Falls, the most dangerous rapid in Arizona's Salt River Canyon. As the story behind the crime unravels, their defense, to make a deadly place safer, sparks new debate about the survival of Wilderness in the United States.

A discussion will follow each showing, featuring experts from the USDA Forest Service and Northern Arizona University.