Joe Berlinger Gets Crude

Why we film: Bringing the story of Crude to the world

by Joe Berlinger & Michael Bonfiglio | Published February 23, 2010

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But the late 20th-century equivalent of the Trail of Tears, Wounded Knee and countless other crimes of and against humanity are the kinds of industrial practices that have occurred in places like the Ecuadorean Amazon, whether “legal” or not. Working in concert with local governments, private corporations have destroyed the lives and cultures of native people and the environments they thrived in as caretakers and stewards for generations. As in previous eras, the conquest of native lands continues to be rooted in claiming and conquering territory. But in recent years, the invaders have focused primarily on commoditizing natural resources so that people like us can have the cheap gasoline and petroleum products we’ve grown used to demanding.

In response to the charges of cultural genocide, murder and other abuses the indigenous people have leveled against his company, Chevron spokesperson James Craig recently told the LA Times, “Where are the evidence and witnesses? Where were the police? If you’re going to make these types of accusations, you should back them up with something.”

While some may view Mr. Craig’s statements as callous evasions by a corporate mouthpiece, they also perfectly illustrate a disconnection that lies at the heart of the conflict portrayed in Crude. While Chevron’s detractors accuse the oil giant of hiding behind impossibly unrealistic and improvable technicalities, in adhering to contemporary legal standards Craig makes a fair point. Without specific standards and concrete evidence, anyone can be accused of any type wrongdoing regardless of whether the claims have any merit. Lawyers for the plaintiffs say they can prove Chevron’s legal responsibility when it comes to the pollution, but Chevron claims the opposite. In its PR campaign to win hearts and minds in this case, the fifth largest corporation in the world portrays itself as the victim of a shakedown by a group of “environmental con men.”

While it is clear to us where the moral responsibility lies for the irreparable damage to native cultures and human life, it is up to a judge to decide who will win the legal case. We are moviemakers, not lawyers, and Crude attempts to tell both sides of the story and allow audiences to make up their own minds about the lawsuit. But while we can’t say which side is correct from a legal standpoint, Craig’s comments make us wonder whether he has ever actually been to this place.

After a couple of hours in the back of the pick-up, we pull up to our “hotel” on the outskirts of the town of Shushufindi. Not far from the Colombian border, this area is a known “R&R” destination for members of the FARC paramilitary group (the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias Colombianas). It’s a sketchy locale that feels a bit like the Wild West. Given the current state of law and order here—the town of approximately 15,000 clocks roughly 10 murders per week, most of them unsolved—one can only imagine the level of lawlessness that must have existed here 40 even 10 years ago. Although the hotel we’ve chosen is the most expensive in town and we’re on a tight budget (it costs a few dollars more per night than the others in the area, but the price includes an in-room fan!), the peace of mind provided by the walled-in compound of bungalows guarded by a guy with a machine gun seems worth the extra dough.

Exhausted from our long days of shooting and travel, we retire to the hotel’s makeshift patio restaurant. The only guests here appear to be our small crew, but before we’re able to order a second cold beer the waitress asks us to leave. In an apologetic tone, she explains that someone was shot and killed right in front of the hotel last night, and she and the other employees need to get home before it gets too dark and too dangerous to walk outside. ‘Of course,’ we say. ‘Do you know why they shot him?’ The waitress replies with a shrug. “Because he had a watch.”

With the safety of the hotel staff and ourselves, as well as the thousands of dollars worth of filming equipment sitting in our rickety bungalows now at the forefront of our minds, we call it a night.

As the sun dips below the jungle canopy, it’s easy to appreciate all that has been lost in this part of the Amazon. Squinting toward the empty spaces between the gas flares that spew toxic filth into the air, one can imagine how this place—one of the only locations on Earth to survive the last ice age—must have looked before it was decimated in pursuit of economic “progress.”

In a couple of days we’ll be on a plane home to New York. Tonight we’ll try to sleep, with the week’s footage tucked under our pillows, knowing that a few weeks from now we’ll be back here again.

We have certainly had easier assignments, but in shedding light on a story that has been swept under the rug for decades, we remember why we got into this business in the first place.

Joe Berlinger (Brother’s Keeper, Paradise Lost, Metallica: Some Kind of Monster) is the producer and director of Crude. Michael Bonfiglio is the film’s producer and 2nd unit director.

Crude in available on DVD.

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Comment by Michael O'Rourke on 9/13/09 at 1:58 pm: I want to thank you, Joe and Michael, for a cogent article about your film. Alarming as the situation is for Ecuadoran Indian community and their homeland, you have maintained equanimity in your “capture” of the last 40 years of what to my mind is horrific. But as you point out, this is not new in the Americas. Joaquin Miller, self appointed “Poet of the Sierras,” wrote about living among the Indians in the Mt. Shasta region of California during the Gold Rush of 1849. Upon his arrival he writes of “air so pure, we could eat it.” He uses the word paradise dozens of times. He also describes the ecologic and cultural devastation visited on the Wintu, Shasta, Modoc and dozens of other “river” tribes in the wake of an invasion by a hundred thousand miners. (Invasive species?) The elements and persons of the Cofan story are interchangeable with Joaquin Miller’s “Life Amongst the Modoc"--stories separated by 150+ years. Perhaps your documentary will not only lift the veil of deceit on the practices of a US resource extraction corporation in Ecuador, but turn the light bulb on in the hearts and minds of US citizens about those practices in this country. I mean, we’ve been down the genocide road as a society, we must put our collective will into stopping it worldwide. Best case scenario, your film will inspire us to redress, and prevent future, crimes against the Indians and environment here. You’ve written a great article here, and given the frame, you’re onto a blessing for us all in the making of this film.
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