Oregon film premiere! For eons, a one-of-a-kind population of killer whales has hunted Chinook salmon along the Pacific Coast of the United States. For the last 40 years, renowned whale scientist Ken Balcomb has closely observed them. He’s familiar with a deadly pattern - as salmon numbers plummet, orcas starve. The solution, says Balcomb, is getting rid of four fish-killing dams 500 miles away on the largest tributary to what once was the largest Chinook producing river on earth. Studying whales is science. Removing dams is politics. Defiantly mixing the two, says Balcomb, has become the most important work of his storied career. Meanwhile, the race to extinction for salmon and orcas speeds up, nipping at the heels of the plodding, clumsy pace of political change in the Pacific Northwest, where dams and hydropower are king. Directed by Michael Peterson.
Screening with:
SCAPEGOAT: THE CORMORANTS OF EAST SAND ISLAND
This film documents the US Government's reckless and relentless killings of Double-crested Cormorants on East Sand Island at the mouth of the Columbia River. This colony was once the largest cormorant nesting colony in the world. The justification for killing cormorants was to prevent them from eating federally listed salmon, however the killings caused the collapse of the colony and moved many cormorants upriver where they now eat more salmon than before the killings took place. Directed by Balance Media and Portland Audubon.
Filmmakers in attendance
Special Guests: The Orca Oracle Bus
Sponsored by Joan and Paul Sher