SoTrumpBelieve
Must See Movie...
Seraherrera
The movie is wonderful and true, an act of love in all its contradictions and complexity
Erica Derrick
By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.
popcorninhell
Out of the many films that I enjoy enough to place prominently in my Top 100 List, Crude (2009) is the only documentary that makes the cut. It isn't because its subject matter; which focuses on the price of oil contamination on indigenous populations in Ecuador. It isn't because of its cinematography which is beautiful and sympathetic. Finally, it isn't because of its particular political slant. The reason why I find Crude to be superior to all other documentaries is because it presents a very real problem faced by people far away and makes us sympathize with their plight, while acknowledging that things are complicated.Crude is shot between 2006 and 2007 and details the complex and exhausting case of the Lago Argio oil field. Due to multiple spills, bad regulation and poor clean up on the part of Texaco (now Chevron), the area has been dubbed by many as the Amazonian Chernobyl. A class action lawsuit was brought forth by 30,000 Ecuadorians for $27 Billion dollars in 1993. Fourteen years later the case is still tied up in court.As the film progresses, the scene always returns to an investigative study. A judge is being chaperoned by the plaintiff and defending attorneys as they investigate an oil field that has contaminated untold acres of Amazonian jungle. The lawyers present their argument to the judge and a multitude of growing crowds as they dig for soil samples which are excavated up and opened to find ugly layers of coagulated.It is from this point that the documentary feels more like a docudrama. We meet the plaintiff lawyers Pablo Fajardo a smart but inexperienced lawyer from Ecuador and Steve Donziger, a cynical attorney hired from a powerful New York law firm. Lacking the infinitesimal budget of their defendant, Texaco Oil, the plucky lawyers globe trot from Ecuador to New York to London to Houston, all to further their cause. Meanwhile industry experts make the case that Texaco was A: not the polluter but rather Petroecuador a state-owned subsidiary with a poor track record and B: not the liable for health issues the indigenous population is suffering from as there is no connection to petroleum.While there is a admitted bias to the documentary, director Joe Berlinger wisely shows that there are good people and bad people working on both sides of the issue. In one scene lawyer Steve Donziger irreverently prepares a Chacon Indian to speak at a Chevron stockholders meeting by essentially dictating his own statement to him. On the other hand one expert speaking for the Texaco side of things explains that she would not work for a company that knowingly hurts people or the environment. Do we believe her when she says this? Well we want to.Additionally the basis for the court battle is admittedly tenuous as it is fought in the corrupt courts of Ecuador (U.S. judges remanded it out of their jurisdiction). You add in the issues of oil industry nationalization and local politics and you have yourself one hell of a mess.While both sides quarrel life continues to get harder for the locals. One mother sobs as she tells the camera crew about her eighteen-year-old's bout with cancer while she, herself is sick. She tries to raise money by raising chickens but the chickens wonder down to the stream and are poisoned by the water. She desires to be compensated for her medical bills but since the contamination case has been tied up in court for more than fourteen years, she's not hopeful.There are powerful images featured all over the movie which are hard to reason with. Every time an expert is interviewed about the conditions in Ecuador, the scene cuts back to polluted streams and dying wildlife. An indigenous woman sings a song about the destruction she has seen over the years and children are shown with marks and rashes all over their body. Its hard to process and easy to sympathize.I won't disclose the results of the court investigation but keep in mind that the results are non-binding. That means that years of tireless effort and hard work may never bring justice to the people of Lago Argio no matter how many of Sting's entourage bring focus to the issue. Yet the quiet dignity of the Ecuadorian people will remain intact and remembered, partially thanks to the work of Joe Berlinger and Crude.http://theyservepopcorninhell.blogspot.com/
ncwood
From the March 4 ruling against Stephen Donziger and others by U.S. District Court Judge Lewis Kaplan. (LAP means Lago Agrio plaintiffs):The documentary film called Crude was made because Donziger in 2005 recruited film maker Joe Berlinger to portray the LAPs' case against Chevron. The film featured Donziger quite prominently. Donziger provided Berlinger, cameraman Mike Bonfiglio, and other crew members expansive access to himself, his team and some of its activities for nearly the next three years. The ultimate product, Crude, first was released in January 2009.The Crude team's independence from Donziger and the LAPs' lawyers – to the extent there was any at all – was limited. For one thing, Donziger recruited the film's main source of funding: his former classmate Russell DeLeon. As Donziger wrote: "Russ is funding the case. Russ is funding the movie. And Russ wants to fund more cases and more movies." Through his creation and sole ownership of a production company called Crude Investment, Inc., Deleon contributed approximately 60 percent of the film's total funding.Nonetheless, just as they had done with Cabrera, Donziger and his team attempted to create the appearance that the film was independent, while they controlled or influenced its content from behind the scenes.
druid333-2
In the past 15 (or so)years,Joe Berlinger has certainly crafted his share of eye opening,edgy documentaries. From 'Brothers Keeper',to 'Paradise Lost',and 'Metallica:Some Kind Of Monster'(all co-directed with Bruce Sinofsky),and now,'Crude'. The film concerns a village in Amazonian South America (located in Ecuador)that attempts to take the oil giant,Chevron to court to sue for environmental damage & the mass destruction it has done to both the infrastructure,as well as the cancer that has resulted in Chevron's dumping of toxic oil spills in the water supply for the people who live in the various villages there. We get to view the talking heads on both sides of the argument (the villagers,the environmental advocates,as well as the oil companies and their scuzzy,bottom feeding, corporate ambulance chasers that back them up). Along the way,we are also treated to some vintage clips from Chevron's promotional films,which were generally screened to their stock holders at various meetings over the years,with countless misleading messages. As with other documentaries directed by Berlinger,some unpleasant video footage of the horrors of environmental rape brought on by careless dumping of toxic materials are to be expected (this is NOT a film for munching popcorn by,so be prepared). Spoken in Spanish with English subtitles,as well as English. Not rated by the MPAA,but contains some upsetting footage of the devastation of environmental damage & the horrors that result. Not a good choice for small children.
hanagomolakova
This documentary about the Chevron-Texaso case and the struggle of a small law company trying to win a lawsuit against this oil giant and force them to take responsibility for the ecologic catastrophe they left behind when drilling oil in the Ecuador Amazon rainforest, leaving behind open or poorly sanitized oil pit holes, near or on top of – yes, you heard me, on top of – which people live and suffer from severe illnesses such as cancer, leukemia, or severe skin problems as a result.Amazing documentary, amazing story, which has so much reminded me of the courageous fight of David against Goliath combined with a sprinkle of Erin Brockowich. Amazing how a few can move mountains to help total strangers at a country far away from their ordinary world...
