Tune in and set your DVRs: Pandora’s Promise will air nationwide on CNN this Thursday, November 7 at 9 p.m. (EST), with an encore showing at midnight (EST). Following a strong critical reception at Sundance Film Festival and a successful film tour led by its Academy Award-nominated director Robert Stone across the United States, Australia, and Japan, Pandora’s Promise will be available to US viewers for one night only.

Hailed as “compelling,” “essential viewing,” and “the most important movie about the environment since ‘An Inconvenient Truth,’” Pandora’s Promise is inspiring antinuclear environmentalists to reconsider their views and call for greater discussion about the potential of nuclear energy. The movie follows the intensely personal stories of environmentalists and energy experts who have undergone profound conversions from being passionately against, to strongly in favor of nuclear energy – all the while putting their careers and reputations on the line in the process.

Through the first person perspectives of Stewart Brand, Gwyneth Cravens, Mark Lynas, Richard Rhodes, and Breakthrough Institute’s Michael Shellenberger, Pandora’s Promise exposes the rift within the environmental movement as the cast describes their individual journeys of defection and later inclusion in a growing pronuclear environmental movement.

This past spring CNN Films acquired both Pandora’s Promise and Blackfish, a gripping documentary about a Sea World orca connected to the deaths of several people while in captivity, as part of their venture to offer dynamic “new-to-television” documentaries that present thought-provoking, challenging, and engaging content. When Pandora’s Promise was slated as part of the fall schedule, CNN Films representatives spoke to the film’s capacity to generate a lively dialogue on issues relevant not just to environmentalists and energy experts, but also everyday people.

“Pandora’s Promise should inspire broad discussion on the fundamental issues of economic and social disparities and environmental risks,” said Amy Entelis, senior vice president for talent and content development for CNN Worldwide. “This is precisely the type of challenging debate we had hoped for when we conceived the mission for CNN Films,” she said.

“[Director Robert Stone] approaches this issue with a journalist’s sensibilities,” said Vinnie Malhotra, senior vice president of development and acquisitions for CNN Worldwide. “He reports the history and how we got here, spotlights the challenges, and systematically debunks the myths and misinformation that have so clouded this essential debate – before this important film,” Malhotra said.

Reviews of the film echo this sentiment. Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly declares, “Pandora’s Promise is built around what should be the real liberal agenda: looking at an issue not with orthodoxy, but with open eyes.” As Michael Specter writes in his review in the New Yorker, “Stone and the people he focuses on are not afraid to display their ambivalence,” he says. “That makes their decisions [to support nuclear] even more powerful.”

New and returning viewers who wish to join the conversation about the potential benefits and trade-offs of nuclear power, or those who would like to share their reactions to the film, are invited to visit the CNN live blogs that will aggregate real-time conversations across social platforms. For viewers outside of the States, Pandora’s Promise will be available worldwide on iTunes on December 3.

Pandora’s Promise website

Twitter: @PandorasPromise // @CNNFilms

Facebook: facebook.com/PandorasPromise

CNN Live Blogs

Photo Credit: Pandora's Promise

‘Pandora’s Promise’ Airs Nationwide Nov. 7 on CNN

Nov 4, 2013