Damocracy the Movie

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Damocracy is a film about the cultural and natural heritage the world could lose if two controversial large-scale dams are built despite widespread opposition and resistance – the Belo Monte Dam in the Brazilian Amazon and the Ilisu Dam in southeast Turkey.

Award-winning filmmaker Todd Southgate travels from the vast Amazon rainforest in Brazil to the mountains and plains of upper Mesopotamia and the ancient town of Hasankeyf, southeast Turkey, and visits communities threatened by the two major dam projects.

By focusing on impacts such as a permanent drought on the Xingu River’s “Big Bend” and the sinking of a city in Turkey that dates back to the Bronze Age, Damocracy exposes the myth of large-scale dams as clean energy. It reveals the undemocratic processes forcing these dams onto an unconsenting public by governments steamrolling national laws and international regulations.

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Damocracy was produced by Doga Dernegi (BirdLife Turkey), in collaboration with Amazon Watch, International Rivers, RiverWatch, Gota D’água (Drop of Water) Movement, Instituto Socioambiental (ISA) and Movimento Xingu Vivo para Sempre (MXVPS).