Plot

Before the invention of radar, courageous pilots depended on visual landmarks to mark their route. Fog was their deadliest enemy. Then in the midst of the Great Depression, a maverick inventor named C.R. Pleasants came up with something he called "Sky Dust". It was tested and championed by Amelia Earhart, the world-famous aviatrix. A later invention was even more powerful, an electronic device that Pleasants claimed could change the weather. Yet despite his many successful demonstrations there were problems. Self-taught and relying on intuition and "weather sense" he could not explain how his machine worked. Adding to his woes were an unscrupulous business partner and corrupt officials who thwarted the introduction of his inventions even after it was proven that they worked. Worst of all was the tragedy of his son, paralyzed after being caught in a fierce storm, struck down by the very forces Pleasants had tried to control. Was what this eccentric man doing science? Was it art? Was he an unacknowledged pioneer or a lucky crackpot? Filmed in 1973 but only completed in 2020, THE PLEASANTS EFFECT is the true story of an inventor, his implausible invention, and the family that believed in them both.