I don't want to spoil this documentary, but I do want to list some high points to motivate Oregon progressives to go see it, because this kind of courageous, independent, documentary film-making is extremely important and needs to be supported. As the saying goes, "vote with your wallet."
The film proves that General Motor's EV1, Honda's electric car, electric powered Toyota Rav-4's, and similar vehicles that were powered by a bank of Nickle Hydrate batterys had over come early technical difficulties and were capable of reaching top speeds of 70 mph at a range of 300 miles per day with zero emissions.
Following the passage of the law, which was in response to health problems like 1 out of 4 children in LA having respiratory problems at the peak of LA's smog problems in the 80s, a number of "consumer choice" groups formed to protest electric vehicles. These groups were all tied to big oil funding.
It shows how the auto industry, led by General Motors and DaimlerChrysler (parent company of the labor-unfriendly and Portland-based Freightliner Trucks) filed a suit against the State of California to repeal the electric car law that was lawfully passed by its representative government.
The film presents the facts showing how hydrogen fuel cell technology is not a viable alternative fuel within the next 20 years, yet the successfull electric vehicle experiment has been effectively buried in history, thanks to auto industry efforts to make sure that all vehicles were recalled (even if the owner wanted to keep his/hers) and sent to be crushed or shredded for scrap metal.
This is an excellent documentary and deserves good attendance from the progressive community in Portland. Thanks for reading my post.
PS - It is particularly interesting in light of this movie that researchers of "joe cell" technology, which uses a metal and electrically charged cylinder that is filled with water to generate electricity, have withdrawn their research under threats against their lives. For more information, check out:  http://www.rense.com/general72/oinvent.htm
You could just google on "joe cell" and you will see what I'm talking about. If there's any savvy, engineering type progressive reading this who might know a lot more about Joe Cells than me, please comment.
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Still, it's hard not to be contemptuous towards GM for being so selfish by not just discontinuing the leasing program for the EV-1, but also recalling and destroying them so that nobody else could expand on their technology. One of the suggested reasons they did recall and destroy, after all, was that there was no money in it for them. It would seem possible that they could have at least licensed out reproduction of the car, all, or in part, by another manufacturer or research organization.