Jan 30, 2009
The Klamath River basin has
been the scene of an upstream and sometimes
uphill battle that has resulted recently in
an apparent victory for tribes, agriculture
and commercial fisheries. The movie “Upstream
Battle,” released
last year was produced by German filmmaker
Joachim Schroeder and directed by Ben Kempas.
Tribal members representing their
communities in the film are Merv and Wendy
George of the Hoopa tribe; Ron Reed, the son
of the last Karuk; Richard Myers of the
Yurok tribe; and Jeff Mitchell of the
Klamath tribe.
The film
aptly portrays the evolution of the struggle
for dam removal as tribes, local farmers and
commercial fisherman join forces to improve
conditions on the Klamath River. In the
beginning of the film, the tribes stand
alone in efforts pitted against the power
company, the farmers and commercial
fisherman, but as the story develops, these
former rivals find common ground and come
together to move the cause forward.
This film
is notable in its clear and matter-of-fact
portrayal of the water use issues on the
Klamath River. It clarifies the effect of
the network of dams along the river on
salmon migration and tribal subsistence
fisheries. The filmmakers are successful in
portraying tribal members sympathetically
without oversimplifying or romanticizing the
struggle to regain traditional fishing along
the river. It also includes information on
the complexity of an issue that affects the
whole region.
The massive
fish die off on the Klamath in 2002 was
pivotal in the controversy. At this point in
the history of the river, tribes worked to
convince the powers that be the affect of
the dams on water quality and the water
pulled from the river for irrigation had
caused the die off of tens of thousands of
spawning salmon. The film shows the efforts
of tribal members first in their attempts to
communicate with Scottish Power, then with
Warren Buffet after he acquired the power
company that owns the dams. The film
includes the vantage point of
representatives of the power company and
gives the viewer a window into how the lives
of the tribal members and the
representatives of the power company come to
intertwine.
In November
2008, the Department of the Interior
released a statement, an Agreement in
Principle, indicating that dam removal is a
real possibility for the future. The
response press release was signed by the
tribes and groups representing commercial
fishermen, sports fishermen and agricultural
interests in the region. The film does an
excellent job of taking the viewer on the
journey to understanding how the coalition
came to be and to share in its successes.
The
award-winning film has been shown
internationally and continues to share the
story of the Klamath River around the world.
It premiered at the Munich Documentary Film
Festival and went on to be the winner of the
Human Rights Award at Dokufest in Kosovo. It
has been shown at film festivals in Toronto,
Canada and Reykjavik, Iceland. It’s first
showing in the United States was at the
Woodstock Film Festival where it was a
competition finalist. It won Best
Environmental Film at an international film
festival in the Czech Republic and most
recently took second place for Best
Documentary Feature at the Anchorage Film
Festival. It was shown at the Wild and
Scenic Environmental Film Festival in
California in January and was the opening
night feature at the Stranger than Fiction
film series in New York. Its next showing in
a film competition will be at the Big Sky
Documentary Film Festival in Missoula, Mont.
in February.
More information about this film can be
found at
www.upstreambattle.com.
