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Interview with Joe Berlinger - Director of CRUDE
By: Diana Tung
Posted: Aug 27 09
Witnessed: 2054 times
Regions: Ecuador, United States
Issues: Corporations and human rights, Indigenous peoples, Sustainable development
Tags: Chevron, corporate accountability, documentary, environmental justice, film, filmmaker, interview, joe berlinger, lawsuit, oil, Pablo Fajardo, Petroleum, Texaco
In this interview with WITNESS, Berlinger discusses his new film CRUDE, a documentary that tells the story of 30,000 Ecuadoreans that are suing U.S. oil giant Chevron-Texaco for allegedly causing one of the worst environmental and humanitarian crisis in the world. Berlinger talks about why he chose to make this film and what impact he hopes CRUDE will have. CRUDE - a finalist in WITNESS 2009 Silverdocs Award - opens in NYC on September 9.
Here's more on the film from CrudeTheMovie.com:
"...[CRUDE] is the epic story of one of the
largest and most controversial environmental lawsuits on the planet.
The inside story of the infamous “Amazon Chernobyl” case, Crude is a
real-life high stakes legal drama, set against a backdrop of the
environmental movement, global politics, celebrity activism, human
rights advocacy, the media, multinational corporate power, and
rapidly-disappearing indigenous cultures.
The landmark case takes place in the Amazon
jungle of Ecuador, pitting 30,000 indigenous and colonial rainforest
dwellers against the U.S. oil giant Chevron. The plaintiffs claim that
Texaco – which merged with Chevron in 2001 – spent three decades
systematically contaminating one of the most biodiverse regions on
Earth, poisoning the water, air and land. The plaintiffs allege that
the pollution has created a “death zone” in an area the size of the
Rhode Island, resulting in increased rates of cancer, leukemia, birth
defects, and a multiplicity of other health ailments. They further
allege that the oil operations in the region contributed to the
destruction of indigenous peoples and irrevocably impacted their
traditional way of life. Chevron vociferously fights the claims,
charging that the case is a complete fabrication, perpetrated by
“environmental con men” who are seeking to line their pockets with the
company’s billions.
The case takes place not just in a
courtroom, but in a series of field inspections at the alleged
contamination sites, with the judge and attorneys for both sides
trudging through the jungle to litigate. And the battleground has
expanded far beyond the legal process. The cameras rolled as the
conflict raged in and out of court, and the case drew attention from an
array of celebrities, politicians and journalists, and landed on the
cover of Vanity
Fair. Some of the film’s subjects sparked further controversy as they
won a CNN “Hero” award and the Goldman Award, the environmental
equivalent of the Nobel Prize."
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