For those of us born in the right place and at the right time, we usually start our day by turning on the lights, making coffee in our coffee maker, and turning the heat up on very cold days. Do we ever consider just how lucky we are to have a source of reliable energy? Help Is On The Way is a wake-up call.
Help Is On The Way
Help Is On The Way was produced by Muster Point Productions and is directed by Mathew Embry who has several award-winning documentaries under his belt (Living Proof, Painkiller: Inside the Opioid Crisis and Global Warning). The documentary premiered on June 20th and is free to watch globally on YouTube through Muster Point Productions.
As you sip on your hot cup of coffee, snuggled comfortably in your heated or air-conditioned room, and as your supper is cooking in a gas or electric oven, there are 1.8 billion people experiencing energy poverty.
Read that last paragraph again.
People must resort to burning wood, dung, or other harmful materials just to cook their meals. There are no lights, internet, computers, or cell phones to call for help. Anyone who has followed The Walking Dead series will understand just how nearly impossible survival is when there is no source of energy. Do I have your full attention now?
Help Is On The Way spans regions from the Peruvian Andes to the Canadian Arctic, and we, the viewers, are taken on a journey with volunteers and advocates who devote their time and knowledge to bringing sustainable energy to off-grid regions.
In Help Is On The Way, we follow volunteers, Kalista McNabb and Pavneet Cheema, as they and other volunteers prepare for the gruelling travel to reach isolated areas of Peru. Mathew Embry introduces us to a Peruvian guide who acts as a facilitator in introducing the team to the people in desperate need of energy. Along the way, we meet Mykola Pelikov, a Ukrainian filmmaker and refugee whose perspective is shaped by war displacement, and Aaron Cohen, the executive director of Light Up the World. Aaron Cohen leads the effort to bring sustainable energy to the world’s most isolated regions.
Conclusion
What really surprised me about Help Is On The Way was the realization that even though Canada sits on some of the world’s largest energy reserves, it is hampered in delivering affordable energy at home and abroad by political and structural barriers. Even more eye-opening is the realization that we are depending on fossil fuels in order to transport sustainable energy to isolated areas. Talk about a paradox. This is mind-boggling.
Mathew Embry is an award-winning Canadian filmmaker and advocate known for his bold, socially conscious documentaries. He is the founder of MS Hope, Energy Creates, and President of Muster Point Productions…so I had some questions for him.
Gilbert: Hi, Mathew. I truly learned a lot from this excellent documentary and was surprised that there were still places on this planet that lacked a means of energy and fuel to even cook their meals. How can people help groups like Light Up The World and Energy Creates?
Mathew Embry: Thanks, Marie. Yes, it’s shocking, but very real. Over 2.3 billion people around the world still rely on traditional fuels like wood, charcoal, and animal dung just to cook their meals. This leads to serious health problems, including respiratory diseases, and results in more than 3.2 million premature deaths each year, especially among women and children.
To support Light Up The World, visit www.lutw.org. You can donate directly or contact them to join one of their hands-on energy access projects. They’re doing vital, life-changing work in communities like the one featured in the film.
As filmmakers committed to real-world impact, we also set up a GoFundMe to directly support a solar project in Ancallachi, Peru and help the people shown in the documentary. We personally contributed $10,000 to get it started. The link is: www.gofundme.com/CanadaCanHelp. Every donation goes directly to Light Up The World and towards the people of Ancallachi.
As for Energy Creates, our mission is to get youth involved in national and international energy conversations. We’re currently giving away five $100,000 scholarships (totalling $500,000), and all the contest rules and details are at www.energycreates.com. We encourage people to share the link and the message. These are critical issues, and young people deserve a voice in shaping our future.
It’s also important that people understand: in our current global energy system, we need a responsible blend of conventional and renewable energy sources. This is a key part of the equation if we’re serious about alleviating energy poverty today, not just decades from now.
Gilbert: Will you ever revisit the places in this documentary to see how the people are doing with their newfound source of energy? I was curious as to their health status now that they have a healthier means of cooking their food and heating their homes.
Mathew Embry: Yes, it’s very important to us to continue supporting the people featured in our film. Raising awareness is only one piece of the puzzle, real impact comes when that awareness translates into action and long-term change.
In the case of the solar installation in Huarcaya completed by Light Up the World, we absolutely hope to revisit that community in the next few years to see the difference it has made. Light Up the World actively monitors these communities in real time to ensure the systems are working properly and that everything is running smoothly.
As for the broader social outcomes, improved health, education, and quality of life due to stable, affordable, and reliable energy, those changes take time. But they are exactly the kind of long-term effects we hope to document if we can shoot a sequel.
And if we’re able to successfully fund our GoFundMe for the community of Ancallachi, I would love to follow the journey of Hermenegilda Landa and her baby. Seeing their lives improve would be deeply meaningful for me and our team.
At the end of the day, we want our films to make a real difference.
Gilbert: What is your greatest fear, as a filmmaker, on the status of the world’s energy survival, especially since it’s so easy for terrorists to destroy a country’s power grid? I am so sorry about asking such doomsday questions, but as a filmmaker, I’m guessing that you often get to see what the government officials ignore.
Mathew Embry: No need to apologize, these are good questions to ask. Energy is one of the most important and overlooked conversations we can have. Affordable, stable, and sustainable energy is essential for life today. If we were to lose it, whether through terrorism, mismanagement, or depletion, the consequences would be catastrophic.
One of the main reasons I continue to make films about energy is to help people understand just how critical it is. We often worry about power grids being taken down, and yes, that would be a serious problem. But the more widespread and ongoing concern is this: billions of people around the world still don’t have access to reliable energy. That’s a crisis happening right now, and it’s impacting health, education, food security, and opportunity.
In Canada, my greatest fear is that we become so caught up in politicizing and polarizing the energy conversation that we lose sight of the bigger picture: energy is not just a political issue, it’s a human one. And in the West, we often take it for granted while failing to recognize how important it is for the rest of the world.
That said, I do believe the conversation is starting to shift, as our new government moves toward positioning Canada as a global energy superpower. Canadians are waking up to the reality that we need a balanced and responsible approach, one that includes both conventional and renewable sources. And it’s not just the government, industry on both sides is pushing to innovate and lead. Our first LNG shipment to Asia is proof of that shift, evidence that Canada can start playing a real global role in expanding energy access.
So yes, I have concerns, but I also have hope. And that’s what keeps me making films!
Gilbert: What are you working on now?
Mathew Embry: Right now, I’m really focused on promoting Help Is On The Way, which is available to watch for free at www.CanadaCanHelp.com. But I’m also deep in post-production on Living Proof 2, the sequel to Living Proof, a documentary about my journey living with multiple sclerosis.
Living Proof 2 is a follow-up film that explores the impact the original documentary had on people around the world. My hope is that Help Is On The Way can have a similar kind of ripple effect, raising awareness, sparking conversation, and inspiring action.
Thanks again for doing this interview, and I appreciate everyone taking the time to check out the work.
