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Huff Post Repost: Chevron - Finding New Ways to Crush Opponents, Intimidate Filmmakers and Disempower Populations

By Joe Consumer

I know I'm not the first one to draw comparisons between James Cameron's fictional Avatar, where a corporate-military entity uses force to obtain Pandora's valuable natural resource while devastating the indigenous population, and Joe Berlinger's award-winning documentary, Crude, where Texaco-Chevron actually does nearly the same thing in Ecuador's rainforest in order to extract oil. In Ecuador, the people are using the courts to try to force the company to account for the devastation it has caused. This is perhaps not possible on a moon like Pandora. Yet their struggles seem no easier than the Na'vi's.

Falling under the category "truth is stranger (and certainly more dangerous) than fiction," on Friday April 30, Crude's director, Joe Berlinger, will be in federal court in New York City fighting Chevron's attempt to force him to hand over to Chevron more than 600 hours of footage he did not use in the film. Berlinger obtained some of these outtakes confidentially or with the understanding that only with express permission would anyone see it. Chevron hopes it will find something to use against those who are suing it.

Keep reading.

Full post as published by ThePopTort on April 28, 2010 (boomark / email).