DisemPOWERed: Puerto Rico's Perfect Storm
In the fall of 2017 Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico, wiping out the electric grid and plunging 3 million people into the worst blackout in US history. Roughly 3000 people died in the months after the storm and thousands lived in the dark for nearly a year. In the words of a New York Times report, Puerto Rico “all but slipped from the modern era” (Glanz and Robles 2018).
How could this happen? We are a filmmaker and anthropologist who teamed up to tell the story of the root causes behind the long blackout. We also asked what does it mean when a modern place that has enjoyed electric services for over 50 years is shut down by one extreme climate event. Are there warnings here for the rest of us? 
Our film, “DisemPOWERed,” finds no “natural” disaster, but instead a “perfect storm” of debt crisis, corruption, manipulation by Big Oil and Wall Street, an electric utility that was bankrupt before Maria, and the burdens of colonialism that has left Puerto Rico with a dying economic model and a legacy of heavy oil dependence.
This film will support the ongoing citizen’s movements in Puerto Rico to democratize their energy system and make it more resilient. It will also serve as a resource to students, educators and the general US public where the consequences of Puerto Rico’s territorial status and its colonial history, are poorly understood.
HOW YOUR DONATION HELPS
This is an independent, non-commercial project. So far we have financed the production entirely out-of-pocket, with our own funds. That includes multiple trips to Puerto Rico in 2018 and hundreds of hours of research, transcription and editing work. At this stage we have a 45 minute rough-cut but we need your help to complete the project!
We need to pay for translation and subtitling of the film into Spanish to boost the film’s utility in Puerto Rico. We also need funds to help cover the licensing fees of select music and video clips used in the film. Finally, we are raising money to help pay for promotion, film festival submission fees and associated costs.
INCENTIVES
Anyone who donates at least $100, before the end of May, will receive a special thanks in the credits of the final film.
A $200 donation will get you a special thanks in the credits as well as a private link to an advance copy of the film, ahead of its official release.
A $500 dollar donation gets you a private link to an advance copy of the film as well as an Executive Producer credit.
PRODUCTION CONTINUES!
We are scheduled to return to Puerto Rico in May where the near-finished film will screen at the 2019 SANA-SUNTA Anthropological conference in San Juan, and we will be seeking feedback from the audience. We also plan to conduct additional interviews during this time to bring the film up to date with the newest developments.
We'll be distributing the film without charge to selected non-profit organizations in Puerto Rico and elsewhere that are engaged in education and activism for a more democratic and renewable future.
With your help, we are aiming to complete the film in early summer of 2019. All of your donations will go toward improving the film and its exposure, to help us tell this important story.
Thank you sooo much for your support and please share this campaign and help us get the word out!
ABOUT US
Roque is a filmmaker and photographer based in Brooklyn, NY. He studied film and television production at Savannah College of Art and Design. Sandy is a former journalist who teaches anthropology at the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill. She does research on the relationship of energy and debt.