Grants & Awards

About the Film:

Through the voices of Bolivian revolutionaries, Charge takes us to the front lines of the conflicts surrounding natural resources. Andrea Terraza and other coca farmers battle military forces sent to eradicate a crop the farmers grow to survive. Oscar Olivera, a former shoe factory union leader, provokes a national protest against water privatization, leading to the eviction of one of the world’s largest corporations.  As the country is engulfed in crisis, a plan to sell Bolivia’s natural gas to California triggers the overthrow of the country’s president and the election of Evo Morales, a self-described socialist and the first indigenous president in Bolivia’s history.

Then, in the wake of this transformation, a remarkable discovery is made. Beneath the Salar de Uyuni, a remote salt flat in southern Bolivia, lies over 50% of the world’s lithium – a key resource for today’s battery-powered economy and burgeoning electric car industry. While the world focuses on these vast lithium reserves, Bolivia’s complicated history with resource extraction has assumed global urgency. Often described as a “beggar on a golden throne”, Bolivia’s rich natural resources have seldom profited the Bolivian people. Over the past twenty years, however, the country has witnessed a fierce populist revolt for control over those resources–a revolt with the potential to change Bolivia’s fate.

At this historic turning point, the salt flat has become Bolivia’s crucible. At stake for the West is the future of the new energy economy. But for the Bolivian people the stakes are higher: an opportunity to break the resource curse and forever change their destiny.

In addition to being a Cinereach grantee and a Cinereach production, Charge is also a recipient of grants from:

Gucci Tribeca Documentary Fund
MacArthur Foundation
NYSCA 
Paley Center for Media
San Francisco Film Society 
Snag Films

About the Filmmakers:

Mike Plunkett – Director
Mike Plunkett’s short film Mary Mary, which he wrote, directed and edited, was a King Wasserman finalist at the First Run Film Festival. Mike has edited several documentary films and TV shows including Miami Ink, LA Ink, Makeover Train, and Storm Chasers. He edited a Cinereach (Reach Film Fellowship) documentary short called So The Wind Won’t Blow It All Away, which screened at the Sundance Film Festival and aired on PBS.

Anna Rose Holmer  - Producer
Anna’s recent works have begun to blend documentary and narrative forms and have taken her to Cuba, the Czech Republic, Puerto Rico, Guatemala, and across the U.S. She recently co-produced A Ballet in Sneakers: Jerome Robbins and Opus Jazz, a companion documentary to NY Export: Opus Jazz, which premiered at SXSW ‘10 where it was recognized with the Emerging Visions Audience Award and played on PBS as part of the Great Performances/Dance in America Series. Anna’s first feature, Twelve Ways to Sunday, was one of ten films to participate in IFP’s ‘09 Documentary Filmmaker Lab and premiered with Rooftop Films ‘10.

Sam Black – Consulting Producer
A native of Portland, Maine, Sam Black has worked in documentary film in New York since 2007, primarily at Jigsaw Productions, the production company of Oscar-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney. He acted as an archival research coordinator on Gibney’s Gonzo: The Life and Work of Hunter S. Thompson (Sundance, 2008), and an associate producer and researcher on three subsequent Jigsaw films: Casino Jack and the United States of Money (Sundance, 2010), the forthcoming My Trip to Al Qaeda (SXSW and Tribeca Film Festivals, 2010), and a currently-untitled documentary about Eliot Spitzer (Tribeca Film Festival, 2010).

Festival & Award Highlights:

Gucci/Tribeca Documentary Fund
IFP
NYSCA
SFFS
Snag Films/Paley Center for Media