Great Basin Pulse

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Films, reporting, and people who write about Western water. Links are to their own pages. This is a reading list, not an endorsement of anyone’s views. Great Basin Pulse is not affiliated with the organizations named here or anywhere else on this site.

Video

DamNation

Patagonia Films, 2014. Directed by Ben Knight and Travis Rummel. Patagonia posted the full film on its official YouTube channel in 2020. About dams, rivers, and what happens when they come out.

Chasing Ice (official trailer)

Exposure Labs, 2012. Directed by Jeff Orlowski. James Balog’s Extreme Ice Survey. The film itself is paid. This is the official trailer only.

Practical Engineering Grady Hillhouse’s channel on infrastructure, including dams and water systems. Link the channel, not a single video.

Worth knowing, not embedded

  • Cadillac Desert. 1997 PBS series from Marc Reisner’s book, the classic Western-water documentary. Copies on YouTube look unofficial, so this is a description, not an embed.
  • Water & Power: A California Heist. 2017. Rental on Amazon, Apple TV, and Google Play.
  • Last Call at the Oasis. 2011/2012, Colorado River and Lake Mead. Netflix and other paid platforms.

Recent reporting

Leaders to follow

Only accounts and author pages confirmed against a primary source. A wrong handle is worse than none, so unverified personal social accounts are left off.