We are working every day in a small team to build up our Power Station project both on our street and in our borough of London - we've made a feature doc about it which has so far played in over 70 cinemas and across the UK - now we want to scale the impact and work on 5 more fims, in 5 more areas across the UK - helping them to turn their streets into Power Stations. Everything we do, we film. And we make our work open source so other communities can do the same. We see this as important work, as we're in a climate crisis. The world may well be completely insane, with wars, worsening climate climate etc - but we feel the best way to deal with all this is to work closely in community - both with neighbours and online - and just start to build an alternative, more just world around us. 

We send you artworks,  and remind you when the film livestream is on. You don't have to do much more than that - and of course you don't have to come and attend live - you'll get to watch the film for up to 7 days after the event in a digital portal.  Meanwhile we will continue to make art and build the power station across the rooftops of our local borough in London.

No that's it. If you take out the annual membership offer you can renew your membership next year - you don't have to! You can either cancel it immediately so it doesn't recur, or email Mark@power.film and he will do that for you. If you forget about this do get charged again and want a refund we will always refund. You would get an email reminder 7 days before any recurring charge - just reply to it and we will switch it off, if you want out. 

You might look at this and think why bother helping this small project? It's miles from me - and I already have solar etc. But really our street stands for every street. This is way more than what it seems on the surface, this is a movement demanding renewable energy for all, and seeking to make an impact on the way we imagine energy and climate justice in the UK at a critical time. The film is already getting a lot of attention and we'll be building on this in Phase 2 and bringing many more streets onboard.

We are a community interest company - 

At the core of Optimistic Foundation are the practices of filmmaker and musician Dan Edelstyn and artist Hilary Powell. We have worked alongside each other since moving into a breeze block studio in Hackney Wick, East London as the London 2012 Olympic development began. We have been assistant, cinematographer, designer, actor, producer, director on each others work through this time in shared optimism and political awakening. Through our current project ‘Bank Job’ we have come together to create a platform to investigate and tackle urgent economic, philosophical and social issues of our time through anarchic, joyful cultural production. We bring the community into the heart of the production process, strengthen marginal voices and bring critical issues into mainstream debate through provocative cultural action.

Optimistic Foundation is a CIC – Community Interest Company. Company number 11337743.

You can download our accounts at Companies House, and read about us in the press. Perhaps the best evidence of our work is watching Bank Job - which is below - a film that took 5 years to come to fruition. All of them take time. You can also watch How to Re-Establish a Vodka Empire on Netflix to see how our work takes time and involves huge amounts of love and patience.

We are a community interest company - we are using culture and art to ask important questions about the way we live - philosophical, social and economic questions. We create artefacts - ie artworks, films, books etc, and we try to create things that have an impact - both on the people directly around us and those further afield - our audiences. If you join us and become a member, you're supporting our work and through that the projects we're creating. We can't add solar to schools, put panels on houses on the street etc unless our company is solvent. Your membership supports and underpins the company and without it, we will have to shut down. It's that simple.

Yes !! We wish they would, and then we could focus our energies and attention on other things - but at this time climate activists are being locked up and labelled as extremists - and finding solutions to the biggest crisis of our generation still seems technocratic and far away. We are working in the area we live to change that and arguing this is what any sane government should be doing. But it just isn't. But to make this project work, we need support - we cannot do it alone. 

We have been working on this almost 5 years!! We have got solar on 20 houses and 5 schools - and we're now trying to scale up in our borough and beyond. It's a critical time. We do believe every small act of resistance ripples out and is worth it. We would do it again if we had to start from scratch. 

Is it worth supporting us? We believe it is. We have designed this project to give ourselves hope, so our children can go into the world and their children - without the threat of climate breakdown. That's how seriously we take this. The artworks have been created to reflect on these times, we have used the materials of the sun, they have meaning - buying them is more than buying art that looks pretty - this actually does something postiive. 

We are fighting to make this happen now. Not in some imaginary future. We need your help now. The membership is only open for a few days - and we will shut this sales page down for another three months. So if you want to join in, now is the time. 

We are a small team of four people dedicated to making this project happen. It's a labour of love and none of us is getting rich from this - and our artworks are very reasonably priced. Our work has been exhibited all over the world, the V&A, Museum of London - the Fitzwilliam in Cambridge and even MoMA in NY. We want our art to question power, and provoke thought and imagination and we stand behind it with all our heart and energy. Yes. It's worth it.