Documentary “Green Green Water” seeks funds

by Elaine Klaassen

Filmmaker Dawn Mikkelson is raising money to finish her documentary "Green Green Water," an important film that will show the devastating results of northern Manitoba hydro projects – the dams, which, over the past 30 years, have changed forever the lives of aboriginal people.

Just what you need. Another fundraiser. But if you are concerned about our "civilized" tendency to help ourselves to whatever on the planet we might fancy, this is one place you will want to drop some money.

Mikkelson will show a four-minute preview of the film at the Lyndale United Church of Christ, 810 W. 31st St. (the cross street is Aldrich), Wednesday night, August 4, at 7 p.m. Senator Scott Dibble (DFL), Representative Frank Hornstein (DFL) and Lyndale UCC’s Reverend Don Portwood will also be on hand to discuss what the hydro projects have to do with Minnesota. A unique opportunity will be offered to bid on the only silent auction item, an original 1926 photo of a Cree canoe by Edward S. Curtis, donated by the Continuum Center.

Hydroelectric power produced in Manitoba is sold to Minnesota, where it fulfills a portion of Minnesota’s requirement for green, clean and renewable energy. In recent years, however, the tragic effects of Manitoba’s dams on the environment and aboriginal communities have started to come to light. When Mikkelson heard about the destruction of terrain, as well as the human toll, she determined to find out how green and clean hydropower really is. The aboriginal suffering was a human rights and marginalization story she wanted to tell. Her college degree in political science and women’s studies, her experience as a TV news reporter, and two films on GLBT issues under her belt give her more than a fighting chance in taking on a project of these proportions.

In December of 2002, braving subzero temperatures, Mikkelson traveled to northern Manitoba to begin collecting footage. She found a community that did not vote to have its waterways destroyed, a community that resists giving up its ancient way of life because there is no alternative. Morale is low. There is no hope for the future. Suicide rates are off the charts. Elders are still living who remember what it was like before the dams. Trapping, hunting and fishing, the traditional livelihood of northern Cree for centuries, are nearly impossible now because of fluctuating water levels that have rendered the old waterways unrecognizable and, consequently, the habitat grotesquely altered.

Mikkelson shared with native trappers the life-threatening risk of riding in snowmobiles over tenuously frozen rivers. Snowmobiles go through the ice all the time but people continue to go out because they don’t have other employment options. The problem in winter is that water doesn’t freeze like it used to. The ice is fragile, and unreliable: there’s often a layer of air between the ice and the water underneath, but you can’t tell by looking. Mikkelson said she was scared to death.

In "Green Green Water" Mikkelson hopes to document in detail what the environmental changes are, and how they have changed communities and affected the health and morale of a group of people without much recourse. She will also document the roles of Xcel Energy, who buys the power, and Manitoba Hydroelectric Company, who produces the power. And, looking to the future, she hopes to consider how compensation can happen. She asks the question: "How can the community come out the other side with some sense of normalness, feeling good about themselves and the community and [about their] relationship with Manitoba hydroelectric company?

At the end of August Mikkelson will return to Manitoba, this time with award-winning Ojibway/Metis photographer James Fortier ("Alcatraz is not an Island"). The trip cost is estimated at $20,000, of which she already has almost a fifth. All and any support is appreciated.

You can see more about the film, check out the silent auction and donate online at www.greengreenwater.com