TAKE LIGHT
SYNOPSIS
Amid the tangled wires of Nigeria’s energy crisis, hope flickers.
Power means everything in Nigeria. Africa’s biggest oil producer is the world’s seventh most populous nation. Yet less than 50 percent of the country’s 195 million citizens have access to electricity; those that do, receive a few hours per day at best.
While media pundits and politicians debate the nation’s chronic power problem on the news, the streets offer a refreshing, if harsh, reality check.
Take Light takes you to the oil-refining hub Port Harcourt-director Shasha Nakhai’s hometown-where blue-collar workers toil long hours on the frontlines of the grid. Their compelling and dramatic stories create a gritty, beautiful, and urgent documentary that reveals a side of Nigerian society audiences rarely get to see.
In Port Harcourt blackouts affect daily life in ways that are disruptive and, often, dangerous. Martins, a devoted family man, works for a private power company disconnecting delinquent customers and snipping illegal electric hookups. Deborah, his tough but cheerful colleague, is a “marketer,” who collects on unpaid bills from angry customers.
“We need to make a cultural shift,” explains Amara Nwankpa, the Nigerian clean-energy activist who cofounded #LightUpNigeria, a massively successful social media campaign he cofounded in 2009. “Development is a marathon, not a sprint,” Amara says. “You learn to celebrate your small victories.”
SCREENING DATE & TIME
Q & A with Director Shasha Nakhai
A live discussion with Director Shasha Nakhai moderated by eLDee
RUN TIME
1 hour 19 minutes
YEAR
2018
COUNTRY
Nigeria
DIRECTOR
Shasha Nakhai
PRODUCER
Ed Barreveld
CINEMATOGRAPEHR
Rich Williamson
EDITOR
Rich Williamson
Director's Bio
Shasha Nakhai Shasha Nakhai is a filmmaker based out of Toronto with Compy Films and Storyline Entertainment. Her award-winning films have screened at festivals and aired on TV worldwide, been released on iTunes, gone viral and been awarded Vimeo Staff Pick and Short of the Week.
Her last film with partner Rich Williamson, Frame 394 , was shortlisted for the 2017 Academy Award for Best Documentary Short and was part of the CBC’s new Digital Doc Shorts initiative. It had its world premiere at the 2016 Hot Docs Film Festival, and went on to win Best Canadian Short at NorthwestFest, Best Documentary Short at the Rhode Island Int’l Film Festival, Best Documentary Short at the Sidewalk Film Festival, the Audience Award for Best
Documentary Short at the New Orleans Film Festival, and Best Documentary at the Charleston Film Festival. It was named one of TIFF’s Top 10 Films of 2016, and was nominated for 2 Canadian Screen Awards. Shasha was 1 of 8 emerging producers selected for the DOC Institute’s Breakthrough Program in 2015, and was awarded Telefilm Canada’s Pay It Forward Prize as part of the Hot Docs Film Festival’s Don Haig Award. Take Light is her first feature documentary.
She also has a deep love for interactive storytelling, working as a brand ambassador for PlayStation for 8 years, and having been selected as the inaugural recipient of WIFT’s Ubisoft Toronto Producer Mentorship program. She recently collaborated with DimensionGate on her first virtual reality project, Take Light VR .Having graduated from Ryerson University’s Broadcast Journalism program, Shasha was born in the Philippines, grew up in Nigeria and came to Canada as an international student in 2003.