The acclaimed documentary Switch: Discover the Future of Energy, directed by Harry Lynch, is the first balanced film about energy. It is part of the Switch Energy Project, a multifaceted effort to establish a balanced understanding of energy nationwide. The film will be shown at the Charles B. Wang Center Theatre on Thursday, October 24, at 7 pm. The screening is free and open to the public.
In the film, energy visionary Scott Tinker, narrator, co-producer and writer, travels to 11 countries around the globe in an attempt to discover a balanced path to our energy future. Tinker visits 26 of the world’s leading energy sites — coal to solar, oil to biofuels — and interviews 53 experts who are driving energy today, including international leaders of government, industry and academia.
“While many other energy films set out with an agenda, then advocate for one energy type or another, Switch is different,” said Tinker. “We started with a question then went out to find the answers, working hard to remain unbiased and open to new ideas. I’ve been studying our energy transition for 10 years, and working in energy for nearly 30 — and I learned many, many new things on our journey. And they’re in the film. It’s based on practical, realistic, evidence from the field — and the many other experts we interview! Its controversy is in its balance and candor. In that respect, there is no other energy film like this.”
The Switch Energy Project includes the film, a video-based and data-supported website that is one of the web’s foremost energy resources, and an education program (elementary, middle and high school) of videos and curricula co-developed by the American Geological Institute.
This film screening is sponsored by Stony Brook University’s Department of Geosciences, Sustainability Studies Program, Civil Engineering Program and School of Atmospheric Sciences. For more information, call (631) 632-9404.
More About Scott Tinker
Scott Tinker is the Director of the Bureau of Economic Geology and the State Geologist of Texas. He is also the acting Associate Dean for Research and a professor holding the Allday Endowed Chair in the Jackson School of Geosciences at the University of Texas at Austin. He is an internationally known energy expert, giving invited lectures more than 40 times a year to industry, government and academic groups, striving to bring them together in a common understanding of energy.
More About Harry Lynch
For 16 years Harry Lynch has been a documentary director, producer, writer, soundtrack producer and sometime cinematographer, who has made the films listed below, along with some short docs, fundraisers and commercials. Before that he worked as a photographer, screenwriter, ad writer and producer, audio engineer and record company intern. Switch is his sixth film and second web project. Lynch’s films include Switch (2012 theatrical), Unconventional (2008 NBC regional), Recapturing Cuba (2007 PBS), Ride Around the World (2006 IMAX), Making the, Modern (2003 PBS) and Bullriders (1997 theatrical, DirecTV).
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