Reckoning with the Sun
Director: Callie Mejia
Series Producer: Michele Forman
Impact Producer: Kelly Marshall
Every single day, the sun provides Alabamians with more energy than we could ever use – all for free! So why aren’t we using more of it? As solar energy takes off around the world, Alabama is left behind, with most still using dirty fossil fuels to power our communities. This film explores the exciting possibilities of harnessing the sun to meet increasing demand, and the complicated choices that come with it. Can we make room for solar without giving up the wetlands, waterways and wildlife that make Alabama special?
During the summer of 2026 I got the opportunity to be a part of the Alabama Rivers Alliance’s Southern Exposure Fellowship. For six weeks me and four other filmmakers each worked on our own short documentary projects highlighting a story about Alabama’s environment and the people that are fighting to protect it. Each of our stories were picked by the Alabama Rivers Alliance and their community partners based on what are the most poignant and important environmental issues for the current moment in Alabama. The completed films are then used as educational tools around Alabama to teach residents about timely issues that are affecting their communities.
It was such a pleasure to be part of this fellowship and work alongside all the other talented filmmakers in my cohort. I got introduced to numerous inspiring people doing incredible work to protect the natural world and got to explore and fall in love with a part of the country that I had never spent time in before. There is so much to love about Alabama and I am proud to have made a film that hopefully makes people think differently about solar going forward in Alabama.
