Crude examines the ‘Amazon Chernobyl’
November 26, 2009 at 9:24 am by Curt Holman in movies & tv
CRUDE: Cancer victim Maria Garofalo reflected in the stream behind her home in the Ecuadorean Amazon
In the documentary Crude, Brothers Keeper director Joe Berlinger presents a courtroom drama that never takes place in a courtroom. The grim but engrossing film recounts the tactics and history of a civil lawsuit filed by thousands of native Ecuadoreans who allege that Texaco (now Chevron) polluted vast areas of the rain forest with oil, leading to contaminated drinking water and high cancer rates.
Crude primarily follows two lawyers, towering Manhattanite Steven Donzinger and diminutive Ecudorean Pablo Fajardo, as they try to keep the case alive following more than a decade of legal maneuvers and stalling tactics. Since part of the trial process includes judicial inspections in the rainforest’s polluted areas, Crude features unusual scenes of Fajardo arguing his case against Chevron’s counsel in open-air clearings before dilapidated-looking pipes and thick underbrush.
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(Photo by Juan Diego Pérez)
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