Power Trip

“A first-rate documentary which impresses on a number of levels, Power Trip provides unique insights into the role played by a major American company in an impoverished, corrupt, almost Third World country, Georgia. Made with deft evenhandedness, Paul Devlin’s accomplished film plays almost like a fictional drama, containing suspense, comedy and some colorful characters,” wrote David Stratton for Variety.

In Power Trip, winner of numerous film awards, documentarian Paul Devlin (SlamNation) tells the story of the chaotic post-Soviet transition in Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia, through culture clash, electricity disconnections and blackouts. AES Corp., the massive American “global power company,” purchased the privatized electricity distribution company in Tbilisi, capital of the former Soviet Republic of Georgia. AES manager Piers Lewis was faced with training the formerly communist populace that, in this new world, customers pay for their electricity. The Georgians meanwhile, from pensioners to the Energy Minister, devised ever more clever ways to get it free.

Amidst hot tempers and high drama, Lewis struggled to balance his love for the Georgian people with the hardships his company created trying to build a nation from the rubble of Soviet collapse.

Piers Lewis, the main character in Power Trip is a University of Michigan classmate of director Paul Devlin. Lewis, who had lived in Tbilisi for years and spoke fluent Georgian, pitched the film to Devlin, and provided unusual access to AES-Telasi.

At first Devlin felt that trying to portray the transition from collapsed communism to capitalism was too monumental a story with too many complicated abstractions to convey in a movie—until Piers explained that the reason for his shoulder-length hair was that he refused to cut it until the electricity bill collection rate increased from 10% to 50%. Paul realized that Piers’ daily visual reminder to his Georgian co-workers could provide a dramatic structure for the movie—whether or not Piers cut his hair would represent the progress of Georgian electricity reform.

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