Liberating the western wilderness, from deserts to rainforests. The Peter Simpson Free Cinema illuminates a PC student’s ecological perspective – PART 3, Return of the River – Showing tonight, Oct. 22, 7-9 p.m. at PC Little Theater

Viewpoint by Giovanni Roverso

Return of the River – Showing tonight, Oct. 22, 7-9 p.m. at PC Little Theater

This is story of the largest controlled dam removal in modern history. The Elwha River settles back into its original state, as the restoration project continues. Nature slowly comes back. The waters are still murky and turbulent, and will be for up to a decade. The filmmakers came to speak after the film and announced that a few days earlier, a salmon redd had been spotted above Glines Canyon for the first time—wonderful news, considering the dam had only been completely removed at the end of August. The salmon population around Port Angeles will take longer to recover.
The film project began as an underfunded Kickstarter campaign; it was a 50-50 collaboration between John Gussman, director and cinematographer from Sequim, and Jessica Plumb, writer and co-director from Port Townsend. Over four years, the two worked in their own time to make sure the film got done. The filmmakers said it had been a pleasure to know people from both sides of the removal debate. 70 people were interviewed for the film, of which 30 appeared in the film. The film won the PTFF Film Impact award.

PART 1 | PART 2 | PART 3