The City Dark

In this documentary aired on PBS's acclaimed POV series, filmmaker Ian Cheney adopts a poetic and visually arresting (even hypnotic) style to enhance subject matter that might otherwise seem like eco-alarm du jour. Cheney is a New York–based photographer whose passions include capturing astronomical images—incredible starfields and distant celestial vistas. Unfortunately, due to the tremendous amount of artificial light pouring upward from Manhattan—ditto for any urban center—he can rarely see stars after sunset (in contrast to his early years in Maine), let alone take photos of them. Cheney uses this as a jumping-off point to explore the history and consequences of nighttime illumination—the dark side of electric light, as it were—with commentary from scientists and others (including Hayden Planetarium director Neil deGrasse Tyson) accompanying the stunning astrophotography. The documentary points out that light pollution from distant cities interferes with high-sensitivity telescopes sweeping the heavens for potential “Earth killer” asteroids. Birds, sea turtles, and other wildlife are also lethally misdirected by nocturnal luminosity. Perhaps most urgent for many viewers is the claim that people working night-shift jobs—exposed to artificial light out of phase with normal biological cycles—seem to show increased rates of cancer. Despite some unanswered questions (is LED lighting any less harmful?), The City Dark is to light pollution/overdosage what An Inconvenient Truth was to climate change, and should spark discussion. Including both the full-length version and a 58-minute abridgment for classroom showing, this is highly recommended. Aud: H, C, P. (C. Cassady)