Since 1983
FILMS ABOUT WATER POWER
PRODUCED, WRITTEN & DIRECTED BY NEAL LIVINGSTON, 1981
WATER POWER
Livingston's personal experiences in building a small hydro operation for his own use led him to produce two films focusing on the resurgence of small water power as a renewable energy form.
This film is a short history of small-scale hydro generating plants including interviews with advocates of alternate energy who are promoting this alternative to power megaprojects. It documents the process of installing a low head, hydroelectric system for domestic use on the filmmaker's rural homestead in Mabou, Cape Breton.
The film traces the history of this alternative source of energy through archive footage, still photography and visits to operating units of various sizes including household and domestic units. People interviewed for the film include manufacturers, consultants, and small-scale operators.
The filmmaker draws from his personal experience of what it was like to develop his own hydro unit from conception to the production of power. An award winner at the Atlantic Film Festival.
In November 1983 Water Power was featured in "What's Happening?" a weekly series of new films of provocative social and political interest at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.
"Congratulations... I got seduced by your film. Thank you-above all for making it. And for making it so articulate, so handsome, and so effective." - Timothy Findlay (1930-2002), December 6, 2001 (world renowned Canadian author).
PRODUCED, WRITTEN & DIRECTED BY NEAL LIVINGSTON, 1983
A PORTRAIT OF SMALL HYDRO
Water power is known as the sleeping giant of renewable energy sources. In 1900 there were over 100,000 small water-power sites in operation in North America. With the advent of cheap fossil fuels, many of them fell into disrepair.
In the early 1980's New England was the scene of the resurgence of small scale hydro electric projects.
This film concentrates on three new hydro entrepreneurs who have brought up old dam sites and are rebuilding them for the production of power.
This work attracts a special breed of person, someone who is fascinated by the technology, the history and the elegance of this method of generating power. These entrepreneurs delight in the fact that things have come full circle, and that water power which built their communities, is once a again responsible for their revitalization.