Thursday, Oct. 02, 2008

Documentary looks at effects of Snake River dams removal

By Dori O'Neal, Herald staff writer

DAYTON -- Filmmaker Colin Stryker was so intrigued by the complexities in the debate over the removal of the Snake River dams he had to make a movie about it.

River Ways, showing today at the Liberty Theater in Dayton, takes an in-depth look at how removing the dams in hopes of saving salmon would affect the area's agricultural communities.

"I actually started out on this film thinking to make it a fictional account," Stryker said in a phone interview this week. "But I had to rein in that idea because it was just too complex an issue for fiction."

River Ways explores the lives of people affected by the issue of whether to remove four dams on the Snake River in Eastern Washington. Environmental groups and fishermen have long criticized the dams for harming the salmon population.

On the other side, farmers depend on the irrigation water the dams provide.

"People in the Northwest are polarized on this issue," Stryker said. "In making this film I learned to think better outside myself and my opinions by truly listening to what both sides had to say."

Stryker, who recently moved to Olympia from Portland, wrote the script and produced and directed it.

The film has won numerous awards since it made its debut last year. Some of the honors were given at the Everglades International Film Festival and at Oregon film festivals in Eugene, Bend and Astoria. It also won best endangered species and habitat award at the Earth Vision Environmental Film Festival.

"It was always my goal to represent both sides fairly, to be sensitive to the opinions of all the people involved, even if I didn't share those opinions," he said. "And I think that what emerges is a complex portrait of an issue that reaches to the heart of the ideological differences that characterize the Pacific Northwest.

The film will be shown at 7:30 p.m. at the Liberty Theater, 344 E. Main St. in downtown Dayton. Admission is $3. Stryker will be on hand at the screening for a discussion and question and answer period following the film.

More information about River Ways is available at www.sawgrassproductions.com.