May 02 2013

Screening | A Road Not Taken

Thurs | 7pm

On the occasion of IDEAS CITY, Swiss Institute is pleased to screen A Road not Taken, a documentary film by Swiss artists Christina Hemauer and Roman Keller.

In 1979, Jimmy Carter, in a visionary move, installed solar panels on the roof of the White House. This symbolic installation was taken down in 1986 during the Reagan presidency. In 1991, Unity College, an environmentally-minded centre of learning in Maine acquired the panels and later installed them on their cafeteria roof.

In A Road not Taken, filmmakers Hemauer and Keller travel back in time, follow the route the solar panels took, and interview those involved in the decisions regarding these panels as well as those involved in the oil crisis of the time. They also look closely at the way this initial installation presaged our own era.