Charge (2011)

• 72%
• 2011
• Documentary
• Mark Neale

CHARGE captures a pivotal moment in motor sport history: the advent of high-speed, zero-emissions racing. It came on June 12th 2009, the day of the world's first zero-emissions motorcycle grand prix. The race took place on the Isle of Man TT course, the most demanding and deadly circuit on the planet. The movie follows the fortunes of several teams, from swaggering US hotshots MotoCzysz to shoestring Anglo-Indian contenders Team Agni and local heroes ManTTx Racing. The story begins in early 2009 amid the hectic preparations for the first zero emissions grand prix and concludes three years later at the 2012 event. Each year sees a huge leap in performance - proof that racing really does improve the breed and that maniacs on motorcycles can be a force for global good. CHARGE is the dramatic and highly entertaining inside story of an unlikely group of pioneers - obsessed visionaries, ambitious businessmen, new-tech eccentrics, government ministers and hardcore racers - from as far afield as India, the USA, Germany and Britain. It's a human story as well as a technological one: the teams' hopes for personal glory and commercial success ride on their green machines. It's also a controversial story: for the visionaries, it's history. For the petrol-heads, it's blasphemy. What's racing without the sound and fury of internal combustion engines? CHARGE is about the future. It's about change. It's about the dream of a clean, green world. It's about the dream of winning.