Can 30,000 plaintiffs from five Indigenous Ecuadoran tribes find justice from Chevron, one of the world’s largest oil producers? Who is responsible for the unconscionable dumping of 18 billion gallons of toxic oil waste in the Ecuadoran Amazon, poisoning the most biodiverse place on the planet? Filmmaker Joe Berlinger’s latest documentary picks up the thread of the infamous Amazon Chernobyl case, a 13-yearold battle between communities nearly destroyed by oil drilling and development and one of the biggest companies on earth. In a sophisticated take on the classic David and Goliath story, Berlinger took three years to craft a cinema vérité portrait centering on the charismatic lawyers in the U.S. and Ecuador who have doggedly pursued the case against all of the forces a corporation can bring into courts of law.
Joe Berlinger
Joe Berlinger is an Academy Award and seven-time Emmy nominated filmmaker. His films include Brother’s Keeper, the Paradise Lost trilogy, Metallica: Some Kind of Monster, Crude, Under African Skies and WHITEY: United States of America v. James J. Bulger. Most recently, Berlinger completed films Intent to Destroy (2017) and Tony Robbins: I Am Not Your Guru (2016).
General sponsor
Crude
USA
2009, 104', color, video
Directed by:
Joe Berlinger
Cinematography:
Juan Diego Pérez, Pocho Alvarez, Joe Berlinger, Michael Bonfiglio
Edited by:
Alyse Ardell Spiegel
Producers:
Joe Berlinger, Michael Bonfiglio, J.R. DeLeon, Richard Stratton
Produced by:
First Run Features
Festivals & Awards:
National Board of Review - Best Documentaries of the Year; One World Media Awards - Best International Documentary; Independent Film Festival of Boston - Grand Jury Prize; Yale Environmental Film Festival - Grand Jury Prize; Festival International du Film d’Environnement - Grand Prize; Thessaloniki Documentary Festival - World Wildlife Fund Documentary Award; AFI Dallas International Film Festival - Current Energy Filmmaker Award; Nashville Film Festival - Human Spirit Award; Santa Cruz Film Festival - EarthVision; Environmental Film Award; Mexico International Film Festival - Best Documentary Film; Docúpolis International Documentary Film - OFF Docúpolis Award
