DOC HIGHLIGHTS POWER STRUGGLES

It’s a paradox that’s infuriating for many in Nigeria: Despite living in Africa’s largest energy-producing country, half the population lives without electricity and the rest with erratic service. The cause, according to director Shasha Nakhai? Widespread corruption. Nakhai’s feature directorial debut Take Light travels to Nigeria, where she grew up, to follow the workers for the Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company who face the threat of violence daily.

“(Take Light is) about a crisis of electrical energy, but also about other kinds of power struggles — the tensions between people, between past and present, between governments and colonial powers — and about the transformation of it all into a seething, powerful force,” says Nakhai. “But, this is also a film about the power of hope.”

It airs on CBC Documentary Channel Dec. 9.