Crude: the Documentary

Crude, a documentary by Joe Berlinger, provides an eye-opening look into the highly controversial battle between Texaco and the Amazon Jungle of Ecuador. The film follows the lawyers’s fight to improve the jungle’s living environment and restore the original beauty of the Amazon. Texaco has been contaminating the rainforest for around three decades, poisoning the water, air and land. The pollution has created a ‘death zone’ that has been increasing the rates of cancer, leukemia, birth defects, and several other health illnesses. This ‘David and Goliath’ story brings up an array of topics: human rights, the power of the media, global politics, multinational corporate power, and celebrity activism. The film was shot in different countries and in multiple languages. Berlinger presented the situation and issue from all viewpoints, capturing the drama and events as they slowly unfolded. There were many people involved, but their main focus was to advocate and fight against the environmental and human suffering in the Amazon. The lawsuit against Chevron, the 5th largest corporation in the world, has been going on for 16 years already. They’re hoping that Amazon will run out of funds to fight against the company. In the beginning, there were only a few people supporting and helping the Amazon. But through interviews like Vanity Fair, it allowed the families and parents living in Amazon to tell their heartbreaking stories. Many of them have lost their children from birth defects, cancer, and died from poison because they drank from the streams. The Vanity Fair gained a lot of global recognition and soon, the President of Ecuador and the wife of the lead singer of ‘The Police’ were both trying to use their social and political status to advocate Chevron’s destruction and contamination of Amazon and it’s inhabitant’s violation of human rights. Berlinger reported this complex situation very well because he also interviewed representatives from Texaco, allowing audiences to