Patagonia’s Damnation Movie - A Review.

Patagonia isn’t a massively popular brand over here; it seems more popular in the States, and as I’ve said before, I definitely believe there are fashion trends in fly fishing. Anyway, I love Patagonia Gear, both their fly fishing and general outdoors wear products are fantastic. Their whole ethos is really cool too, with projects such as ‘Worn Wear’ – Encouraging you to buy second hand Patagonia gear and make your own gear last as long as possible, in order to be more environmentally responsible, as well as reaching out for peoples stories about how they’ve worn Patagonia products all their life, a pretty humble campaign if you ask me.

Anyway, I’m getting distracted. This post is meant to be about one of their conservation projects – Damnation.

First off, as expected, the UK is always left slightly behind and as far as I’m aware, Patagonia’s Damnation Film has only recently become available in the UK. It’s on iTunes for £7.99. I was stoked to see it was finally available! However the Damnation merchandise is yet to grace our shores. Hopefully it will appear in the stores soon!

 

Some interesting activist responses to the dam movement
in America.

A very moving picture of the making of Damnation.

So what’s this Damnation thing all about? Our need to produce energy has effected different countries in different ways, in the UK we’re all about nuclear at the moment, along with the looming threat of fracking. In the USA hydropower is massive (along with the need to manage and regulate water supplies for farming) and the desire to dam every piece of moving water has led to some extreme activist movements. The film goes into every aspect of environmental issues, cultural issues of people who depend on the Salmon run for food and spiritual reasons, the conservationists side who just want to see the Salmon and Steelhead run again, the political side of addressing the majority needs and the men and women who have worked on the dams for most of their lives. It’s a horrible dilemma, but as an angler, the most satisfying sight is seeing the Salmon run a river that has been dammed for decades.

What lies beneath a reservoir?

Energy production will always affect someone, and I’m not trying to be hypocritical, because no matter how much I hate seeing oil spills or local species extinctions from climate change, the bottom line is that I still drive a car and use electricity. Its just that as an angler, the damming of rivers is something closer to my heart, as aquatic ecosystems are something I am serious about conserving.

Striking and inspiring underwater photography features
throughout the film.

So go and buy it from iTunes, you wont be disappointed, it was a real eye opener, and amazing to see a group of people so passionate about aquatic habitats.  

DamNation - Trailer from Patagonia on Vimeo.