“Seeking the Current” Documentary

Spring 2012 Screenings

During the spring of 2012, New Hampshire’s leading environmental organizations hosted a series of free screenings of the award-winning documentary film, Seeking the Current, at locations throughout the state. The feature-length documentary provides a serious, unsparing look at Canadian power giant Hydro-Québec and its development of large-scale hydroelectric power facilities. Seeking the Current recounts the voyage of the filmmakers Nicolas Boisclair and Alexis de Gheldere, who canoed the entire 500 km course of the pristine Romaine River one year before Hydro-Québec started construction on a new $8 billion complex of hydropower projects there. Along the way, the filmmakers examine the history and economics of hydropower in Québec and explore the renewable alternatives to new hydropower projects. Seeking the Current has special relevance to New Hampshire as the state considers and debates the Northern Pass transmission project, the proposed 180 mile transmission line through New Hampshire that would bring an additional 1,200 megawatts of Hydro-Québec hydropower to the New England electric grid.

Thanks to all the sponsors and filmgoers who made the showings and post-film discussions of Seeking the Current with filmmaker Nicolas Boisclair – in Colebrook, Wolfeboro, Wilton, Concord, Auburn, Hanover, Plymouth, Keene, and Bethlehem – a resounding success! This series of screenings was presented by Appalachian Mountain Club, Conservation Law Foundation, Conservation New Hampshire, The Nature Conservancy in New Hampshire, New Hampshire Audubon, Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests, and other New Hampshire organizations and concerned citizens.