To say that the film Catching the Sun is jarring would be an understatement. Throughout this gripping documentary on solar technology, the global energy crisis is greatly put on display. Right off the get-go, the documentary grabs the audience by showing an oil refinery fire within the town of Richmond, California. The town, whose economy has depended upon this Chevron plant, is crippled by the corporation's lack of care and hard lobbying of the city's government. But that isn't the documentary's story. Instead, the documentary has a focus on change. Despite much of the world's reliance on fossil fuels (the United States especially), people and companies that push the integration of solar technology are beginning to take hold across the board. Alongside this change, the documentary shows a great struggle against an overwhelming establishment that constantly pushes back.
On the surface the push towards solar energy seems to only affect the issue of energy, yet the documentary teaches the narrative that solar technology affects many different problems across the board. Environmental, economic, and employment issues are all huge factors that are affected differently by this technology. Solar technology removes the factor of pollution and helps protect the environment. The technology is also a new industry with a budding marketplace and an untapped well of monetary value for the economy. As the industry and marketplace for the technology grows, unemployment will be impacted as millions of new jobs flood the marketplace. It is no wonder that as the technology develops, big fossil fuel corporations are pushing back against its use.
The documentary is especially gifted at using these push backs in support of its cause. Throughout the documentary we are shown the perspectives of a number of different people and their involvement with the technology. These characters are dealt success and road blocks throughout the journey that the viewer takes, and the viewer feels for them as they struggle to work against massive corporations like Koch and Chevron that use grimey tactics to get their way. One character, Van Jones, made it his life's goal to help people get this technology so that it could change the world. Yet as he climbed closer to his goal, he finds more resistance in the form of the Koch corporation and the media who spread lies and make false claims against him until he resigns from everything he had strived for.
The total of the documentary shows this balance of success and struggle as the characters try and change the world with their efforts. It is emotional to see what they deal with, and how they try so hard to make a change for the better. They try to help people, only to have it thrown back at them. Yet despite this, the documentary leaves optimism to the viewer as it ends with the topic of future legislation, technology, and climate accords that will hopefully help to aid the situations that have been showcased by this excellent documentary.
Review of Catching the Sun
