»(…) a generation from now, this solar heater can either be a curiosity, a museum piece, an example of a road not taken, or it can be just a small part of one of the greatest and most exciting adventures ever undertaken by the American people (…).«
– Jimmy Carter, 1979

During the first oil crisis in 1979, US president Jimmy Carter installed solar panels on the roof of the White House. Seven years later, one of the first things his successor Ronald Reagan did on coming to office was to remove the panels as a sign of a radical departure from Carter‘s energy policies. In 2006, Swiss artists Christina Hemauer and Roman Keller came across the remains of the solar panels in an old warehouse at Unity-College in the state of Maine. The artists set off on the road with the solar panels to discover their history and find a new purpose for them. In A Road Not Taken they document their meetings with people involved in the 70s with Carter‘s energy programme, or who suffered during the oil crisis at the time. Hemauer and Keller also meet Jimmy Carter in person and talk to him about his energy policies, about alternative energy sources, the doctrine named after him and his ideas on the »moral equivalent to war«. Due to the active intervention of Hemauer and Keller, the solar panels can today be seen in the National Museum of American History in Washington and in the Jimmy Carter Museum & Library in Atlanta. A Road not Taken recalls Jimmy Carter‘s ultimately unsuccessful attempt to expand renewable energy generation and also raises questions on the possibilities and limitations of the US presidency and of democracy in
general.

Film Programme The Age of Stupid