'Crude' Art: Documentarian Joe Berlinger Discusses His Latest Film

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FILMMAKER JOE BERLINGER'S latest film, "Crude," is about the case filed against U.S. oil company Chevron by 30,000 rain forest dwellers in the Amazon jungle of Ecuador. They claim that for 30 years, Texaco, which merged with Chevron in 2001, contaminated their water, air and land, and that the results have been health problems such as cancer and birth defects. Berlinger, who made the films "Paradise Lost" and "Some Kind of Monster," followed the court case and visited contaminated fields to tell this tale.

» EXPRESS: How did you get involved with this project?
» BERLINGER: Steven Donzinger, the American attorney [for the Ecuadorian plaintiffs], came to my office and asked if I'd be interested in the story. I went into it with reluctance since I'm a multi-viewpoint filmmaker who doesn't like to use narration — I let things unfold and let the viewer make up their own mind about what they're seeing. It's also been a 13-year struggle, and since my style is present tense, I felt like I missed the story. I was also concerned that I wouldn't raise money for this kind of film.

» EXPRESS: What made you change your mind?
» BERLINGER: I agreed to go to the region, and as soon as I landed in the jungle and smelled petroleum and talked to mothers forced to give their children poisonous water, I felt my resistance starting to wear down. I was shocked at what had been done to the region, and I was dumbfounded at the level of environmental degradation and disregard for the people who live there.

» EXPRESS: Did you have trouble gaining behind-the-scenes access?
» BERLINGER: It was actually surprisingly easy to gain access in Ecuador. We stuck cameras in trials, judges' offices, and I was shocked at the almost unprecedented access behind the scenes of a legal case.

» EXPRESS: What were some of the challenges you ran into with filming?
» BERLINGER: The shoot was incredibly strenuous and difficult. It was 120-degree heat at the equator, the pollution pits smelled horribly and gave you headaches and teary eyes; we were in a malaria zone, so we had to wear heavy clothing and cover ourselves up with bug spray. At times, we were a mile and a half from the Colombian border, where guerrillas are very active ... and there's kidnapping of Americans.

» EXPRESS: What was your goal for the film?
» BERLINGER: The film tries to be neutral, since I'm not a scientist or lawyer and I can't tell you whether Chevron presented enough legal technicalities to prevail, so it's about larger issues. The lawsuit is inadequate to address this large-scale humanitarian and environmental crisis that could take decades to resolve, so at the very least I hope to create awareness that our consumption patterns here have an effect on people around the globe.

» E Street Cinema, 555 11th St. NW; opens Fri., Oct. 23; 202-452-7672. (Metro Center)

Written by Express contributor Amy Cavanaugh
Photo courtesy Crudethemovie.com