Short electricity cuts punctuate the day here in Kerala. As if to remind us, for a few seconds in our daily life, that the electricity fairy can play hard to get. Generators always kick in in an instant though, and that is it. Elsewhere, in Guinea for instance, generators are not there to save the day. 

Only about a fifth of Guinea’s people have access to electricity. With few families able to afford generators, school children have had to get creative to find a place to read, do their homework and study for exams. So every day during exam season, as the sun sets over Conakry, hundreds of children begin a nightly pilgrimage to the  G’bessia International Airport, to petrol stations and parks in wealthier areas of the city, searching for light.

 A literal and metaphorical journey to enlightenment, this documentary tells of children’s desire to learn and of a country’s own struggle for change. Alpha Conde became Guinea’s first democratically elected president in 2010, after decades of turmoil and mismanagement.This mismanagement has stuck the energy network of the country in a rut. At the moment, the Guinean government is considering tenders to built temporary power plants in the capital to supply a steady stream of electricity to its population.

To learn more about this issue and the documentary Black Out click here…