BU Law Central

10.22.09

Joe Berlinger's latest feature, CRUDE, opens in Boston at the MFA for a limited engagement: 11/5-11/7 and 11/12-11/13. The film's subject matter includes the largest environmental lawsuit in global history--what's been dubbed the "Amazon Chernobyl" case, a class action lawsuit filed 16 years ago by 30,000 Ecuadoreans against Chevron.  The impending $27 billion judgement will no doubt set a precedent for how transnational corporations will be held accountable in the future.

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.  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. 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.

If you'd like to organize a group of students to see the film, Director Joe Berlinger will be doing a Q&A on 11/7. 

***JOIN US ON FACEBOOK:  http://www.facebook.com/events.php?ref=sb#/event.php?eid=149802146747&index=1

***PLAYING AT MFA BOSTON 1/5-11/7 AND 11/12-11/13 -- Q&As 11/7 & 11/13

         MFA website: http://www.mfa.org/calendar/event.asp?eventkey=40918&date=11/6/2009

CRITICS ARE CALLING CRUDE...:

“Thorough and impassioned… intelligently and artfully made.”

- A.O. Scott, The New York Times

“A fascinating case study of real world political action.”

- Kenneth Turan, The Los Angeles Times

“A powerhouse of a documentary! This one means to shake you. And in Berlinger’s hands, it does.”

-Peter Travers, Rolling Stone

"An amazing, sobering, heartbreaking film.”

- Howard Zinn, Author, A People’s History of the United States

“A piece of magic … Crude is absolutely the most powerful, emotion-provoking, heart-wrenching, best documentary I have ever seen.”

- John Perkins, Author, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man