BY KAREN BOSSICK
When investigative journalist John Frey was asked to make a documentary examining the ongoing fight to remove four dams on the Snake River to revive salmon and steelhead runs, he found himself swept into a world where he saw politicians abruptly silencing those who were making statements or asking questions in favor of the idea.
Soon he got a threatening phone call, clearly disguised.
“It doesn’t take a journalist to figure out I’m on the right track,” Frey said in response.
Frey persisted in completing “The Snake and the Whale.” And the film, which has won a host of awards, will be shown at 7 p.m. tonight—Saturday, July 11--at The Argyros in Ketchum A Q&A with the film’s executive producer Scott Levy, who lives in Sun Valley, will follow.
Tickets are $20, available at https://ci.ovationtix.com/35937/production/1280521?performanceId=11829274.
The film is being brought to the Wood River Valley by Levy, whose BlueFish.org has been promoting a dialogue concerning the plight of Idaho’s wild salmon and steelhead since 1999.
It shows contentious hearings in which Congressional representatives are silencing those speaking to save what was among the greatest salmon and steelhead in the world.
And it examines how the Southern Resident Orca whales off the coast of Washington have been driven to the top of the endangered Species list because they no longer have an ample source of steelhead and salmon to eat.
Just this week, experts warned that 2026 could be one of the deadliest years on record for whales on the West Coast with 145 gray whales washing up on the beach. The average number of stranded whales per year was around 43 from 2006 to 2023, but 179 died last year. Starvation is the leading factor, a representative of the Center for Biological Diversity told WBNS in Los Angeles.
The beautifully filmed documentary also examines what the filmmakers call “corrupt deals” behind the dams’ construction and the subsequent campaigns to hide their role in the ongoing ecological disaster.
The film received the Grand Jury Award, topping 123 films at the Greenpoint Festival in Brooklyn, N.Y. It also received The Chief Dan George Award recognizing its contribution to Environmental Justice at the 2025 Red Nation International Film Festival.
Other awards include the Festival Grand Prize at EKOFilm, Europe’s oldest environmental film festival; Social Impact Award at Activist Without Borders Film Festival, EcoFilm Award at Boston Film Festival, Best Feature Film at the Colorado Environmental Film Festival, Best Documentary at Sweden Film Awards and Best Feature Documentary at Wyoming International Film Festival.