Help Complete Water Wars Documentary Series

Excavators breached Iron Gate Dam to let forty miles of the Klamath River flow free for the first time in over 100 years on Aug 28, 2024.

Relentless activism by Yurok and Karuk people led to the largest dam removal project in history and the chance to revive the health of their river and their communities.

This also culminates nine years of production on the documentary series Water Wars about the theft of water in the American West as it faces a reckoning in the time of climate change.

Editing has started on this multi-part series. But, we need additional resources to keep momentum going forward.

Production started in 2015 along the Klamath River. At that time the project was one documentary about the conflict between agribusiness in California's Central Valley and the Yurok and other Tribes in the Klamath watershed over the water behind the Trinity Dam. That year, 2015, saw the worst drought in California's history. Diversions for agriculture from the Klamath watershed had created potentially lethal conditions for the river's iconic salmon runs. A deadly parasite spread in the river thanks to low flows and high temperatures. The only solution was to release more water from behind the Trinity Dam to flush the parasite out to sea. But, agricultural customers of the Central Valley Project claimed their contracts with the federal government took precedence over the rights of the salmon and the Indigenous Tribes of the Klamath watershed.

Before that story resolved, another conflict over water broke out on the Missouri River in North Dakota. Again, Indigenous tribes faced off against federal dam operators who were under pressure from extractive industries. A Houston oil company wanted to run an oil pipeline, the Dakota Access Pipeline, under the main source of Lakota people's drinking water - the Missouri River.

We spent ten weeks camped at the Oceti Sakowin camp at Standing Rock in 2016 and 2017. It was the largest gathering of US tribes in history. By the end of that experience, we realized that we were witnessing a epochal change. As the climate catastrophe dawned, Indigenous people emerged from war, genocide, and long resistance into an era of renewal. Their imperative to protect the water brought forth the Water Protector Movement.

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Water Wars' crew had cameras aimed at this transition, and we witnessed the key dramas that will shape the growing battle over who controls water in the inevitable climate crisis.

We have gone to great effort to include voices from all sides of this conflict. This approach enriches both the drama of the series and deepens the understanding of the audience.

Funds raised will go towards wages for editors, writers and researchers, and the tools they need. We expect the entire series may take up to 12 months to complete, using multiple editors and producers.

Key personnel on this project include: Exec. Producer, Nick Estes, Lakota writer, professor and podcaster ; Producer, Paula Antoine, one of the founders of the Water Protector movement and Lands Coordinator for the Rosebud/Sicangu Lakota, Writer, Mark Tilsen, an Oglala Lakota poet and educator; Editor Ester Shubinski who is Mohican/French; and Director/Producer, Todd Darling, from Bakersfield, CA where he witnessed the deserts bloom by using stolen water.

This story of water in the American West, as viewed from the perspective of three 21st century conflicts between Indigenous activists and extractive industries on three rivers presents a sweeping look at both our history and our future.