Photographer and documentary filmmaker Ben Knight knew very little about dams in the United States before Patagonia, Inc., founder Yvon Chouinard approached him to create a film about them. Knight and his co-director, Travis Rummel, were also unfamiliar with the heated debate about dam removal and the future of the more than 80,000 dams that restrict the flow of rivers throughout the country. But their past films—on fly-fishing and a proposed open-pit mine that threatens the Bristol Bay ecosystem in Alaska—had convinced Chouinard and his friend, producer Matt Stoecker, both veterans of the river restoration movement, that Knight, Rummel and their production partner Beda Calhoun “had the right sensitivity” to create a film about their cause. At first, Knight felt the subject of America’s dams was too broad. “It seemed so difficult to make a film that could engage people,” he told PDN from his home in Colorado. “It took a little while to realize we shouldn’t say no to a great opportunity just because it was hard.”