about the film

"Transforming Energy provokes critical thought and encourages action on the part of the individual. After seeing the film my CU students have asked me how they can play a bigger role in positive global change. This young generation is ready to move and Chuck's film shows them a world of ideas for finding a voice in environmental change."

      -- Julee Herdt, Architect/Associate Professor, University of Colorado Boulder

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Transforming Energy is a documentary about the hope of Alternative Energy as a solution to the problems of Global Warming and the end of cheap oil and gas. It takes us into the lives, the passion, the commitment and the hard work of the people who are on the ground now, working to create a new energy paradigm.

From political activist Matt Baker of Environment Colorado to Dan Shugar, president of the largest solar panel company in the world - to the student engineers racing their own designed solar cars - to a family living off the grid in rural Iowa.

These stories take on an added significance as the film also goes to Alaska to document the experiences of Native Alaskans who must evacuate their village near the Bering Sea because of the effects of Global Warming.

The film features interviews with Hunter Lovins, William McDonough, Jeremy Rifkin and James Howard Kuntsler who provide inventive new ideas in the debate about the possible solutions to the challenges we now face.

The Filmmakers

Chuck Davis, Writer/Director

Chuck Davis attended film school at the University of Southern California where he received his MFA in film in 1990. In addition to his early films, Cambodian Doughnut Dreams (1989) and Second Chances (1994), Chuck has been involved in the production and direction of four critically acclaimed films: Kosher Valley (1998), Raising The Sparks (2001), Halloween Journey (2003), and Seasons of the Soul (2004). In addition to being shown at many large universities across the country, all of Chuck's films have been screened on various PBS stations.

Joel Shapiro, Writer/Producer

Joel Shapiro is the Founder and Artistic Director of the Electric Lodge, in Venice, CA ( www.electriclodge.org ), one of the first solar powered Visual and Performing Arts Centers in the country. He is a performer, an environmental activist and a physician. Joel created the Electric Lodge to build a home for fellow artists to work, to "paint" their personal and societal joys, angst, confusions, defeats and victories onto the canvas of a stage. In addition, Joel wanted a nucleus from which to spark discussion and debate, and to thereby find creative solutions for the environmental issues that face society both locally and around the globe.

Throughline Productions

Mission: The mission of Throughline Productions is to explore sociological and spiritual aspects of society from a personal perspective that takes the viewer on a moving journey into themes that touch their heart, open their minds and motivate them to explore even deeper.

Chuck Davis, M.D, started Throughline Productions in 1992. After the success of his first two films, the award-winning PBS documentaries, Cambodian Doughnut Dreams (1990) and Second Chances (1991), Dr. Davis, with the help of a small group of talented editors and cinematographers in Boulder, Colorado, began an independent film company dedicated to making documentary films that matter.