if you damn me (in development)

Log Line

Recreating Woody Guthrie’s songs that promoted hydroelectric dams on the Columbia River, songwriter Daniel Bullard works with environmental activists on the nearby Skagit River to protest the existential crisis of salmon, the dispossession of Indigenous communities, and the colonial legacy of dams.

Synopsis

Hired by the federal government in 1941, folksinger Woody Guthrie wrote 26 songs promoting the construction of hydroelectric dams on the Columbia River in the Pacific Northwest.

Using Guthrie’s songs as historical framework, songwriter Dan Bullard travels down the Skagit River—north of the Columbia in Washington State— to learn how the ongoing impacts of three dams owned and operated by the city of Seattle are impacting salmon, people, and the environment.

From fishing boats to courtrooms, Bullard witnesses Indigenous leaders, fisherfolk, farmers, and county lawyers fight for a healthy salmon fishery in their watershed. Bullard then works collaboratively with activists to rewrite and perform their own versions of Guthrie’s Columbia River songs, each protesting Seattle’s controversial policies and the colonial nature of dams.

On a journey through towering dams, dramatic salmon runs, antiquated propaganda films, and Guthrie’s clever tunes, Bullard and collaborators ultimately strive to imagine a better world for salmon and people.