Juice: How Electricity Explains The World

Juice: How Electricity Explains The World asks a simple question to reframe big global problems, can you turn your lights on in the morning? The film moves between cities and rural areas, showing how reliable power affects health, education, work, and gender equity. Interviews with engineers, policy makers and residents link the technicalities of grids, fuels and regulation to everyday outcomes. Archival footage and on-site reporting contrast places that depend on steady supply with communities that cope with outages and scarcity. Rather than offering a checklist of solutions, the documentary encourages viewers to see electricity as an underlying driver of development, inequality and climate choices, without giving away specific policy conclusions. It connects personal stories to broader policy debates worldwide.

Released in 2019, the documentary was directed by Tyson Culver and builds on ideas from writer Robert Bryce. Culver combines field reporting and interviews to translate technical energy topics clearly for general audiences, aiming to bridge journalism and policy discussion.

The film saw a limited theatrical release and screened at select festivals, reaching viewers mostly through public screenings and streaming platforms. It did not pursue a wide commercial rollout, so box office impact remained modest compared with mainstream features globally.

By framing development and climate issues around a single, everyday question the film gave commentators and teachers a tool to discuss energy access. Its interviews and imagery have been referenced in panels and classes, helping shift attention toward infrastructure, regulatory choices and unequal access as central contributors to social outcomes.

Critical and audience reaction leaned positive in niche circles, reflected by a 7.0/10 user score on one platform. Viewers noted the film's focus on how electricity shapes inequality, gender roles, economic opportunity and climate decisions, prompting policy-focused conversations rather than technical detail for specialists and encouraging public debate on solutions.