Review of ‘Power Station’

We live in a time when what should be happening is that the government is printing money to enable a renewable energy/energy conservation revolution, turning every home into a super-insulated power station. But as you may have noticed, that’s not happening. While most of us sit and complain about this, in an ordinary house, on an ordinary street in Walthamstow in London, Dan Edelstyn and Hilary Powell decided to do something about it.

He’s a filmmaker, she’s an artist, and they already have form in mobilising extraordinary projects in the sweet spot where art and activism overlap, in the shape of ‘The Bank Job’, in which they printed ‘bank notes’ to raise money to buy and cancel local payday lending debt. This time they decide it’s up to them to step in and start a community renewables revolution. As you do. In between doing the dishes (or not), running a small business and getting the kids to school on time. And that’s the story that’s told in ‘Power Station’.

At the heart of this story are Dan and Hilary, as likeable heroes as you’ll find in any story. The story that unfolds is deliciously, fiercely, charmingly bonkers, in the best way possible, and in a long and fine tradition of impactful English eccentrics. It brings to mind Jim Dator’s quote that “any useful statement about the future should at first seem ridiculous”.

It would be easy for anyone to dismiss the idea that Dan and Hilary would ever be able to catalyse the people on their street into a solar energy revolution, but clearly anyone doing so has never met Dan and Hilary before. Their incredible belief that THIS WILL HAPPEN, and the amazing audacity and creativity of the tools they use to bring it about will melt even the most cynical of hearts. Power Station is absolutely a work of heart.

This is phenomenal imagination activism. They can see so clearly how the near future should be, and so they set about with astonishing determination and playfulness to make it a reality. There are plenty of moments when most of us would have given up. Moments when it all feels stuck, when the obstacles feel insurmountable, when they’re just exhausted. When conventional fundraising routes produce nothing, they opt instead to crowdfund what they need by sleeping on their roof in the depth of winter, through wind, frost and snow. It would break most people, but somehow they keep going.

I can’t recommend this film enough.

You’ll laugh. You’ll cry. You’ll kickstart a community-led renewable energy revolution.

This is Thrutopian storytelling at its best, a story of transformative change that starts with a couple of people deciding the change needs to start with them, but this is a real story, told with such humility and honesty and with no pretence that this stuff is easy. These are not wildly sociable people who love knocking on the front doors of strangers, rather they are reluctant community organisers, but all the more real and engaging because of it.

When I visited their street last year, I met one of their neighbours they told me “I feel so lucky to live on the same street as Dan and Hilary. You never know what’s going to happen next”. Every street needs a Dan and Hilary, willing to take a chance, to step into the unknown, to brave being considered ridiculous. The beautiful thing that this glorious, heartwarming and joyful film makes me think is that perhaps there already is a Dan and Hilary living on every street, but they’re just waiting for the inspiration and the permission this film gives them to step up and do something remarkable.

I will say, without any sense of exaggeration or hyperbole, that this is one of the most important films ever made. Everyone needs to see it.

Power Station will be touring nationally soon. See their website for details, or to book a screening in your own community.