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Reviews In a fight for power and light An energetic documentary explores a collision of cultures. By Howard Shapiro Inquirer Staff Writer We all know what the song says about the night the lights went out in Georgia. But in the Republic of Georgia, which declared independence as the Soviet Union crumbled in the early '90s, the lights went out every night, for real. Also most days. Power Trip, a thoughtful film by documentarian Paul Devlin, shows what can happen when one nation imposes its values and social system on another, even if everyone means well. Devlin takes us to the Georgian capital of Tbilisi, where the mess of an electricity provider called Telasi - state-owned under communism - becomes AES Telasi after American power giant Applied Energy Services buys the system. AES goes to Georgia with good intentions - modernizing a massive jumble of jerry-rigged wiring, often live and deadly. The company never made a dime, and has pulled out of Georgia completely. Devlin's documentary shows how one company, supplying a basic need,! can end up controlling and defining daily life - here, you might call it a case of power against the people. Devlin tries to tell both sides: AES tried to create a free-market culture where there was none, and its fancy power system cost many residents more than their earnings. They couldn't pay, or did not want to. The company began to disconnect customers in arrears, the customers became more crafty about stealing electricity, and ultimately, the situation sank into an anti-American rut. Devlin captures much of this with a fast-moving camera and skillful film editing; stretches go by with images bombarding the screen. His film makes its point early on, and could be shorter. But it has the sort of energy that many residents in Georgia can only wish for from their sockets.