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A Question of Power - The Manapouri Debate
Television (Full Length) – 1980
The bid to raise the level of Fiordland’s Lake Manapōuri (to provide hydro-electricity for an aluminum smelter) resulted in controversy between 1959 and 1972. This film charts a (still-timely) debate as arguments for industrial growth and cheap energy vie with views advocating for ecological values. New Zealand’s first large-scale environmental campaign ensued, and its “damn the dam” victory was a spur for the modern conservation movement — drawing an unprecedented petition, Forest and Bird, and figures like farmer Ron McLean and botanist Alan Mark into the fray.
Mr Holyoake [then-Prime Minister] claimed all the time that I was making an emotional issue out of it. I reminded him that a little emotion now and then over things that really mattered was not necessarily a bad thing.– Ronald McLean, farmer and ‘Save Manapouri’ campaign leader
Key Cast & Crew
Acknowledgements
Produced for New Zealand Electricity by the National Film Unit.
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