DLA Documentary

What do an Alpine dam, a glass cabin in the Arctic and an air traffic control room near Zurich have in common?  They are all connected in some way or another to daylight.

The full-length documentary ‘The Daylight Revolution’ is exploring daylight and its broad range of ways through which it affects us and our planet. It features a wide range of Daylight Academy (DLA) members filmed in picturesque locations where their activities and research make a difference.

Their work is documented on the backdrop of visually stunning locations ranging from the forests of Central America to a lab floating in the middle of Lake Geneva. It features real examples of cutting-edge innovation and technology that is the product of our understanding of natural light.

Goals

The original idea was inspired by the 2017 DLA booklet “Changing perspectives on daylight: Science, technology, and culture”, published in Science and presenting the wide spectrum of recent multidisciplinary daylight research. Aiming at a broad audience, it explores the role of daylight in our world, decoding the prism of effects it has on us through interviews with leading experts in disciplines related to biology, health, energy, art and architecture.

Team

The documentary is the result of a DLA project initiated by one of its founding members, Prof. Em. Jean-Louis Scartezzini (EPFL, Switzerland), and led to many years of planning and production by Alban Kakulya – film maker, script writer and photographer (Solan prod, Geneva) and Sandy Evangelista – science editor and press officer (EPFL, Lausanne).

Updates

25 March 2025

Screening of “The Daylight Revolution” at Karger@themovies

The full-length version of the documentary film will get its second screening in collaboration with Karger Publishing, being shown at Stadtkino Basel on 25 March, 2025.

9 November 2024

Premiere of “The Daylight Revolution” at the 6th Global Science Film Festival

The full-length version of the documentary was among 11 feature films selected by the film festival out of a total of 985 submissions. It was screened at Stadtkino Basel on 9 November, 2025. The event featured a reception and a podium discussion about the film, moderated by Judit Solt (editor-in-chief, TEC21), with Alban Kakulya and Prof. Em. Anna Wirz-Justice (University of Basel) on the panel. Anna Wirz-Justice was among the 11 DLA members and other individuals whose work was depicted in the film.