Arizona MSR Partnership Produces 'Sunrise,' a New Solar Documentary

‘Sunrise,’ a fascinating look at the long, colorful history of solar electricity and a compelling argument as to why solar power matters-now more than ever, is a recent documentary produced by the Arizona MSR partnership. The public broadcasting station in Phoenix (and all of Arizona except Tucson) will air the documentary on Sunday, April 25, 2004.

“This documentary will reach nearly 100,000 people,” said Jim Arwood, Arizona Department of Commerce and MSR Coordinator for Arizona. “Incidentally, April 25th is the 50th anniversary of the invention of the silicon solar cell, so the airing of ‘Sunrise’ at this time is perfect,” he said.

This documentary combines real life testimonials of solar pioneers in Arizona with a historical look at the development of solar electricity as told through an interview with John Perlin, author of From Space to Earth.

“"In the video, we have three interviews with Arizona homeowners," said Arwood. "But we actually scripted the show so that any partnership could pull out the Arizona sections, plug in interviews from their state and the show would have the same flow and message. We used some footage from the Interstate Renewable Energy Council’s (IREC’s) B-roll video that was part of IREC’s Communities Going Solar Workshop-in-a-Box a few years back,” said Arwood. “The IREC material was very useful. I’ve been holding onto that particular tape for a while because I knew I could use it if I ever did a documentary again. It was nice to show images and homes that weren’t all from the Southwest and desert area,” said Arwood.

Arwood said the video will also be shown in early March at the annual Arizona SEIA meeting. on April 17th, it will be aired at SolFest in Scottsdale.

Here’s a brief summary of what Arwood submitted to the PBS affiliate:

The Story of Solar Electricity

For ages man has studied the sun; but in the last century a long string of committed individuals waged a series of epic battles to reap energy from it. Facing skepticism at almost every turn they nonetheless persevered, and-with help from some unlikely institutions-prevailed. Meanwhile, in the current century, the relevance of this technology grows stronger every day.

Produced by the Arizona Department of Commerce Energy Office with funding from the U.S. Department of Energy - Million Solar Roofs Program.

For more information about this project, contact Jim Arwood at 602.771.1144.