Operatie Oosterschelde

Manufactured Landscapes

September 2006 •English

MANUFACTURED LANDSCAPES is the striking new documentary on the world and work of renowned artist Edward Burtynsky. Internationally acclaimed for his large-scale photographs of “manufactured landscapes”—quarries, recycling yards, factories, mines and dams—Burtynsky creates stunningly beautiful art from civilization’s materials and debris.

Dams: The Lethal Water Bombs

June 2011 •English

Documentary short about the disastrous dangers of aging, ailing dams.

Cadillac Desert: Water and the Transformation of Nature

June 1997 •English

Documentary on water usage, money, politics, the transformation of nature, and the growth of the American west, shown on PBS as a four-part miniseries.

Three Gorges: The Biggest Dam in the World

January 1998 •English

Explores the plans for the construction of the monumental dam on China's Yangtze River, the structure that when completed in 2009 will become the Three Gorges Dam. It is slated to be 610 feet high, 1.3 miles across, creating a reservoir 400 miles and the largest power plant in the world.

Sobradinho

October 2020 •Portuguese

In the 70s, a dam and a hydroelectric plant were built in Sobradinho. The government at the time, which was commanded by the military regime, thought that that small town, in the northeast hinterland, would be ideal for the construction, because there would be no resistance from the locals. So, 73.000 people were displaced - it is one of the biggest forced migrations in the history of Brazil. Four cities and dozens of villages submerged. Mrs. Pequenita was the only inhabitant to ever return; there, she lives in a ghost town. She receives the visit of three social agents, who own old videos and photos of the region.

Grand Coulee Dam

April 2017 •English

During the darkest days of the Depression when construction was started on Grand Coulee Dam, everything about it was described in superlatives. It would be the "Biggest Thing on Earth," the salvation of the common man, a dam and irrigation project that would make the desert bloom, a source of cheap power that would boost an entire region of the country. Of the many public works projects of the New Deal, Grand Coulee Dam loomed largest in America's imagination, promising to fulfill President Franklin Roosevelt's vision for a "planned promised land" where hard-working farm families would finally be free from the drought and dislocation caused by the elements.

Flood in the Desert

May 2022 •English

Explore the 1928 collapse of the St. Francis Dam, the second deadliest disaster in California history. A colossal engineering and human failure, the dam was built by William Mulholland, a self-taught engineer who ensured the growth of Los Angeles by bringing the city water via aqueduct. The catastrophe killed more than 400 people and destroyed millions of dollars of property.

Gorges du Verdon: Les défis du plus grand canyon d'Europe

August 2022 •French

Film-Essay on the Euphrates Dam

January 1970 •Arabic

The construction of a dam on the Euphrates River is an example of a country’s economic development. Through grandly composed images, rhythmic editing, and aestheticized details, the director demonstrates his admiration for the interwar avant-garde. The film is a celebration of the new, while at the same time showing a traditional way of life and calling attention to working conditions; it is a refrain-like evocation of an arid country that explores the difficult lot of Syria’s rural inhabitants.

Vajont 9 ottobre '63

October 1997 •Italian

La Rose et le Barrage

January 1963 •French

A parallel montage of the construction of a dam in Galicia and the architecture of a small Roman-style church.

Dam Nation

October 2020 •Tagalog

This video focuses on Dumagat activists, Nanay Nene, Tatay Lope, and Chieftain Rodrigo and their continuous struggle to organize resistance against a Chinese-funded mega dam in Quezon. The Kaliwa Dam Project will displace numerous Dumagat and non-Dumagat families living near the dam site— yet another example of development aggression.

Oravská priehrada

January 1954 •Slovak

Prvý vážsky stupeň

January 1953 •Slovak

Mule Train

February 1950 •English

A prospector discovers natural cement and suggests it should be used for a new dam. But this is the last thing the badmen of Trail End want, as they have a monopoly of the wagons needed to haul rocks to the site. A pretty sheriff notwithstanding, it's a job for a singing marshal.

The Dam Busters

May 1955 •English

The story of the conception of a new British weapon for smashing the German dams in the Ruhr industrial complex and the execution of the raid by 617 Squadron 'The Dam Busters'.

Cujo

August 1983 •English

A friendly St. Bernard named "Cujo" contracts rabies and conducts a reign of terror on a small American town.

Gamera vs. Barugon

April 1966 •Japanese

Gamera escapes from his rocket enclosure and makes his way back to Earth as a giant opal from New Guinea is brought back to Japan. The opal is discovered to have been an egg that births a new monster called Barugon. The creature attacks the city of Osaka by emitting a destructive rainbow ray from his back, along with a freezing spray capable of incapacitating Gamera.

Spitfire

March 1934 •English

Dirt-poor mountain girl Trigger Hicks is a loner. Her faith-healing is mistaken for witchcraft by the community. She falls for an engineer building a dam, who protects her.

Mothra

July 1961 •Japanese

Shipwreck survivors found on the presumably uninhabited Infant Island leads to a scientific expedition that discovers a surviving native population along with the Shobijin, tiny twin fairy priestesses of the island's mythical deity called Mothra. After the fairies are kidnapped by an exploitative businessman named Clark Nelson, Mothra sets out to rescue them.