Joe Berlinger Gets Crude
Why we film: Bringing the story of Crude to the world
by Joe Berlinger & Michael Bonfiglio
URL: http://www.moviemaker.com/directing/article/crude_joe_berlinger_michael_bonfiglio_20090831/
We've certainly had cushier assignments. Bouncing along an unpaved Amazon road on the back of a bald-tired pick-up truck in blazing 120-degree heat can lead to reflection on how you wound up in your current situation. Making documentaries, we have filmed all over the world under a variety of conditions. Some places—Maui, Copenhagen, Vienna—have been beautiful and sometimes even luxurious. Others not so much, like this part of the Amazon rainforest in Ecuador. Once a pristine Eden, today this place bears numerous scars and open wounds, both literal and figurative, left by 40 years of oil extraction.