Part three of a three-part series U.S. trial lawyers suing Chevron over environmental damage in Ecuador thought they had scored a publicity coup when documentary filmmaker Joe Berlinger agreed to produce a movie about their lawsuit. But instead of a big PR prize, the resulting film, “Crude,” has turned into a legal disaster for the plaintiffs. More than 500 hours of outtakes from the movie submitted to U.S. courts shows the lawyers, their Ecuadorean allies, consultants and activists manipulating public opinion and the judiciary in their pursuit of $113 billion in damages.
At a time when documentaries frequently serve as a tool in legal and environmental crusades against business, the “Crude” saga has revealed a cinematic reality: The truth is often less important than the cause.
