by Dana Alston — September 27, 2017 — Willamette week --

River’s Last Chance is beautiful from the onset. Shane Anderson’s documentary opens with a montage of Northern California’s Eel River, speckled with salmon and wildlife. Wide shots of the river framed by forests and mountains are rendered through stunning cinematography.

The beauty of the river only makes the environmental damage at the center of the film more heartbreaking. A River’s Last Chance—Anderson’s latest collaboration with Portland-based environmental organization Pacific Rivers—tracks damage to the Eel. Three years ago, the river ran dry due to over-logging, over-fishing and a hydropower dam that disrupts salmon migration. One shot shows a salmon that’s reached the end of the river where it’s so shallow, the fish has to struggle to stay underwater.
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It’s outrage-inducing, which is exactly Anderson’s goal. “We’re trying to build a storytelling campaign,” he tells WW. “We’re always trying to push for changes.”

by Natalie Bennon, guest blogger — April 14, 2016 — in Water Currents --

If you’ve ever been to Oregon, you probably think of us as a green state – a utopia filled with people who recycle, ride bicycles, and hike and fish in healthy forests filled with clear streams. But when it comes to our forests and rivers, how real is that reputation?
Pacific Rivers’ new award-winning film Behind the Emerald Curtain takes viewers beyond the scenery that most people see – beyond the “beauty strips” of trees that hide clearcuts from drivers, and behind the locked gates on the private lands that make up one-sixth of the state. There you’ll find people living with the effects of toxic pesticides sprayed from helicopters, of logging that happens right through the majority of streams, of rampant clearcutting on steep slopes causing landslides that smother streams below.  >>READ MORE>>

February 10, 2016 — Jefferson Exchange — Jefferson Public Radio --

Listen here as Behind the Emerald Curtain filmmaker Shane Anderson discusses Oregon’s shameful logging practices on private lands that are poisoning communities, fish and wildlife. And then take action to demand responsible logging in Oregon!

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