About this project
The makers of the award-winning documentary CRUDE, which chronicles the inside story of the largest and most controversial environmental lawsuit on the planet--a 17-year, $27 billion struggle between 30,000 Ecuadorean rainforest dwellers and Chevron--are currently embroiled in a legal battle with Chevron, who has subpoenaed the CRUDE filmmakers and the nearly 600 hours of raw footage accumulated during the production. Our attorneys at Frankfurt Kurnit have argued that our footage is protected by the journalist's privilege, and forcing us to hand it over to any third party (either Chevron, the plaintiffs' lawyers, or anyone else) is a violation of our First Amendment rights.
On May 6th, a US District Court ruled in Chevron's favor, creating a frightening precedent that we and many of our esteemed colleagues--from Bill Moyers to Michael Moore--agree will have a chilling effect on investigative journalism and documentary filmmaking as we know it. In an effort to protect the footage, his sources, and his process, Berlinger immediately appealed, and on June 8th, a three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled that Berlinger will be awarded a full hearing in July on his appeal. As a result, the District Court’s May 20th order directing Berlinger to produce the footage will be suspended during the pendency of the appeal.
As the battle to defend our First Amendment rights presses on, our mounting legal fees are extraordinarily costly. As the third-largest corporation in America, Chevron has far more financial resources at its disposal than we do. We have set up this Kickstarter page as a way for our supporters to help us raise funds for our defense against Chevron and stand up in favor of the future of documentary filmmaking and investigative journalism.
Please donate whatever you can and pass this link on to others who may be interested in supporting the cause. Any financial support you can provide will be greatly appreciated, not just by us, but surely by numerous journalists and documentary filmmakers around the world who have voiced their support for our cause. If we fail to prevail in this case it will undoubtedly set a frightening precedent for the future of journalism and documentary filmmaking.
For those of you who have reached out to us through www.crudethemovie.com asking what you can do to help, this is it. CRUDE's Director/Producer Joe Berlinger has contributed a significant amount of his personal funds towards this case, but now we need to raise substantial additional funds for the appeals process. With your pledge, you can play an active role and make a very real difference in what has quite rapidly spiraled into an historic battle for the freedom of the press, the protection of the journalist, and the foundation of documentary film.
We hope you will help us put up a good fight.
-Joe Berlinger & Team CRUDE
*Recent Articles on the case include:
-Brent Lang's "Court Grants Stay for 'Crude' Director" (http://www.thewrap.com/article/new-york-court-grants-stay-crude-director-18143)
-KCRW Interview w/ Joe Berlinger http://www.kcrw.com/etc/programs/pc/pc100608joe_berlingers_crude
-Norman Lear's "Was Oil Named 'Crude' Because of the Way Oil Compaies Do Business?" (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/norman-lear/was-oil-named-crude-becau_b_604741.html)
-David Folkenfilk's "A 'Crude' Awakening: Chevron vs. the Documentarian" (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php...)
-Robert Redford's "Joe Berlinger vs. Chevron: Why We Must All Defend Independent Filmmaking" (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-redford/joe-berlinger-vs-chevron_b_600433.html)
-Ted Johnson's "New Twist in 'Crude' Suit" http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118020196.html...
-Dave Itzkoff's "Media Companies File Brief on Behalf of Filmmaker in Chevron Case" (http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/02/media-companies-file-brief-on-behalf-of-filmmaker-in-chevron-case/)
-LA Times Editorial "Chevron Sues Over 'Crude': A Documentary's Unused Footage, Akin to Reporters' Notes, Should be Protected"
(http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-chevron-20100521,0,3553969.story)
-Bill Moyers' & Michael Winship's "Chevron's 'Crude' Attempt to Suppress Free Speech"
(http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bill-moyers/chevrons-crude-attempt-to_b_576595.html)
-John Shwartz & Dave Itzkoff's "Should a Documentary Filmmaker Get a Journalist's Privilege?"
(http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/08/us/08pollution.html...)
-Dave Itzkoff's "Oscar Winners Back Filmmaker in Dispute With Chevron"
(http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/05/12/oscar-winners-back-filmmaker-in-dispute-with-chevron/...)
*For more articles on the case, please visit http://www.crudethemovie.com/crude-blog/
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This project successfully raised its funding goal on June 30, 2010.
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A CRUDE DVD or CRUDE American Apparel t-shirt (your choice)
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A CRUDE DVD signed by Joe Berlinger and a CRUDE tee
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A signed CRUDE poster, signed CRUDE DVD, and a CRUDE tee
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CRUDE First Amendment Fund
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Three years in the making, this cinéma-vérité feature from acclaimed filmmaker Joe Berlinger (Brother’s Keeper, Paradise Lost, Metallica: Some Kind of Monster) is the epic story of one of the largest and most controversial environmental lawsuits on the planet. The inside story of the infamous “Amazon Chernobyl” case, CRUDE is a real-life high stakes legal drama, set against a backdrop of the environmental movement, global politics, celebrity activism, human rights advocacy, the media, multinational corporate power, and rapidly-disappearing indigenous cultures. Presenting a complex situation from multiple viewpoints, the film subverts the conventions of advocacy filmmaking, exploring a complicated situation from all angles while bringing an important story of environmental peril and human suffering into focus.
The landmark case takes place in the Amazon jungle of Ecuador, pitting 30,000 indigenous and colonial rainforest dwellers against the U.S. oil giant Chevron. The plaintiffs claim that Texaco – which merged with Chevron in 2001 – spent three decades systematically contaminating one of the most biodiverse regions on Earth, poisoning the water, air and land. The plaintiffs allege that the pollution has created a “death zone” in an area the size of the Rhode Island, resulting in increased rates of cancer, leukemia, birth defects, and a multiplicity of other health ailments. They further allege that the oil operations in the region contributed to the destruction of indigenous peoples and irrevocably impacted their traditional way of life. Chevron vociferously fights the claims, charging that the case is a complete fabrication, perpetrated by “environmental con men” who are seeking to line their pockets with the company’s billions.
Shooting in dozens of locations on three continents and in multiple languages, Berlinger and his crew gained extraordinary access to players on all sides of the legal fight and beyond, capturing the drama as it unfolded while the case grew from a little-known legal story to an international cause célèbre.
And now Chevron wants in on that access. In April 2010, Berlinger and the CRUDE filmmaking team were subpoenaed by The Chevron Corp. for nearly 600 hours of CRUDE dailies. On May 6th, U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan ruled in favor of Chevron, but Berlinger and his team are appealing this decision. Handing over this footage will undoubtedly set a chilling precedent for the future of journalism and documentary filmmaking worldwide. Please support our legal fund and help us put up a fight in what has become a truly historic battle in defense of the First Amendment, journalist's privilege, and the foundation of documentary filmmaking.
