Dan Edelstyn and Hilary Powell, who slept on their roof for 23 days to raise money for solar panels on their street, will release documentary ‘POWER STATION’ on Friday, 3rd October

Hilary and Dan Edelstyn slept on their roof for 23 days in November 2022, Credit: Peter Searle

A couple who slept on their roof for 23 days to fund the costs of installing solar panels on every house in their street are releasing a documentary about their activism.

Amid sub-zero temperatures in November 2022, artists Dan Edelstyn and Hilary Powell raised a total of £113,000 in their campaign to install solar panels on 35 homes in Lynmouth Road in Walthamstow.

Now, their documentary POWER STATION charts their remarkable efforts from convincing their neighbours to join them, to sleeping on the roof of their home to raise funds and even launching a bid for a Christmas number one single

The film premiered at Sheffield DocFest this summer and will launch at the Hackney Picturehouse on Friday 3rd October, followed by a UK-wide theatrical release with Dartmouth Films.

The film presents Dan and Hilary’s vision of galvanising a wider movement towards community-owned sustainable energy alternatives across the UK.

According to Dan and Hilary, if the UK government was to install solar panels on every house in the country, the cost would be made back within a ten-year period.

Frustrated by the government’s lack of action around the urgent need for sustainable energy, and concerned by the cost of living crisis affecting so many people in their neighbourhood, Dan and Hilary take matters into their own hands.

“In the depths of lockdown we wondered what we could do in the world out there. The Whatsapp street group was pinging and it felt like another world might just be possible. We decided to take the community spirit one step further and asked: ‘Who’s up for taking the street off the grid? Free or highly subsidised solar panels for all’,” says Hilary.

When they come down, they launch an attempt at a Christmas number one with the kids from a local school they intend to install solar panels at, eventually raising £50,000 towards the effort. Soon after, they plant and grow 10,000 sunflowers with their neighbours as a symbol of community power.

The project aims to expand its reach with a campaign entitled ‘Every Street A POWER STATION’, taking the film to communities across the country. Momentum is already building as initiatives take off around the UK from Swansea to Sheffield and Northern Ireland to the Outer Hebrides.

Book tickets to the film launch at Hackney Picturehouse on 3rd October here

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