River Ways ( 3. October 2007, 10:18 by Erik) ~ By Kimberley Tibbert

An old film prof once said that the mark of a good documentary is whether you still have questions after watching. He said if you did, then the filmmakers did their job because it meant you were involved in the film and that’s not always the easiest task with a documentary. With that as a measuring stick, Colin Striker’s River Ways delivers a poignant take on a local hot button issue.

River Ways examines the debate over the removal of four dams on the Lower Snake River in the far southeastern corner of Washington. The filmmaker relies on a series of interviews with three people – Frank, a Native American who fishes on the Columbia; Ben, a wheat farmer in the Palouse; and Mark, a commercial salmon fisherman out of Astoria – to highlight the issues involved in what has become a contentious debate.

Unlike many of the modern environmental disputes, here there are commercial interests on both sides of the argument. Farmers want to keep the dams because they mean less expensive transportation of their products to market, reliable sources of irrigation water and inexpensive hydroelectric power. Commercial salmon fishermen and the inland recreational fishing industry would like them gone if – and that’s a relatively big if – it meant strengthening the salmon runs.

And none of the other parties particularly like the “environmentalists” – everyone hates the “tree huggers” and “spoiled rich kids who don’t have to work”. But in talking with people on both sides of the debate, all parties acknowledge that whether the dams stay or go, someone is going to get the short end of the stick and that no matter what, making a living off the River is an increasingly perilous gamble.

Striker’s style is to let the interview subject speak their mind with minimal prodding and it’s effective. The most telling point made by any party in the film is when Ben points out that the Lower Snake River Dams are convenient targets because there’s not much population in the Palouse region and that if all parties were truly interested in restoring salmon runs on a meaningful scale, then the debate should really be focused on the Lower Columbia River dams.

While River Ways is by no means a complete discussion of the issues surrounding the Lower Snake River Dams – the issue of hydroelectric power is largely unaddressed – it does put a very human face on a complex dispute.

River Ways
Directed by Colin Stryker
90 min feature film
Playing Sunday, October 7
2:30 pm at the School of the Arts Theater
Filmmaker will be attending

Relevant links:
http://www.cbr.washington.edu/crisp/hydro/websites.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Columbia.png