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Power Trip Republic of Geogia/ USA 2002 Sunday, April 6, 9:00 pm, Bell Auditorium Monday, April 7, 5:30 pm, Oak Street Cinema Director/Producer/Cinematography: Paul Devlin Screenwriter: Valery Odikadze, Clair Missanelli Cinematography: Valery Odikadze “Georgia on My Mind “ doesn’t just pertain to the happy South—it also applies to the unhappy southern Caucuses of Georgia in the former Soviet Republic, where chaos runs rampant symbolized by the turning of the toaster. U.S. documentrist Devlin encapsulates the post-Soviet climate where American capital has faced its most frustrating transition. In an environment of corruption, assassination, and street rioting, post-Soviet transition yields culture clash and blackouts. AES Corp., an American “global power company,” purchased the privatized electric utility in the former Georgian capital. As AES tries to convey that although energy was free under communist rule, it now necessitates user fees. The wily Georgian consumers, however, devise ever more clever ways to steal it. Amidst hot tempers and high drama, a journalist and an executive are gunned down, and people are left to perish when their power fails. Devlin’s film offers a rare window into the lives of Georgians, and a complex, frustrating, and penetrating look at a nation struggling to rebuild from the rubble of the Soviet collapse. Notes: “What makes Power Trip unusually interesting,” according to Variety, “is the fact that Devlin refuses to take sides. There isn’t a hint of ‘ugly American’ bashing in the film.” It won an Arthouse Prize at the 2003 Berlin Film Festival. Another study of the former Soviet (in this case Chechnyian) Caucuses, is the Russian film The War (in this year’s Festival). (85 min.)