When Jonathan Scott, the eco-conscious co-star of HGTV’s popular Property Brothers, added solar panels to his Las Vegas home, the project turned out to be a revelation. He found himself navigating a series of roadblocks, raised by the local public utility commission to discourage that type of competition.
It led Scott to a bigger, far more public project: a new documentary, Jonathan Scott’s Power Trip, chronicling his travels across the country to explore the obstacles to – and opportunities for – clean, renewable energy. He visits coal mines, utility companies, power plants, and everyday homes, raising the question of why more Americans aren’t afforded the choice to go solar.
The film is featured in the latest online installment of the Indie Lens Pop-Up cinema initiative, and Scott, who directed, headlines a live-chat discussion afterward. Joining him are other central characters in the film: Deenise Becenti of the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority, which oversaw construction of a Navajo Nation power plant; Joyce Johnson of the Beloved Community Center in Greensboro, North Carolina; Pastor Emeritus Nelson Johnson of Greensboro’s Faith Community Church; and Anya Schoolman, who heads the national nonprofit Solar United Neighbors.
The online event is co-presented by The Climate Reality Project in collaboration with the Bud Werner Memorial Library, Charitable Film Network, Circle Cinema, Georgia Public Broadcasting, John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Kellogg-Hubbard Library, KIXE, Maryland Public Television, PBS Hawai‘i, Tillotson Center, UNC-TV, WSIU Public Broadcasting, and WYES. Support comes from ITVS, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and PBS.
