Chevron wants unused film on Ecuador dispute

[n2doc]

David R. Baker, Chronicle Staff Writer

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

(04-27) 18:35 PDT -- Chevron Corp. has gone to court seeking the unused footage from a documentary film about the $27 billion lawsuit against the oil company in Ecuador.

Chevron, based in San Ramon, has asked a federal judge in New York to force filmmaker Joe Berlinger to grant the company access to more than 600 hours of footage left out of the movie "Crude," which was released last year. Berlinger is fighting the company's request.

Berlinger spent years interviewing both sides of the lawsuit, in which residents of the Ecuadoran rain forest claim that Texaco poisoned the region's soil and water while drilling for oil there from 1964 through 1992. Chevron bought Texaco in 2001.

Chevron wants to see whether Berlinger's raw footage contains any material that could help the company, said spokesman Kent Robertson. For example, in one scene of the finished film, plaintiffs' lawyers appear to be present during a community cancer survey that was supposed to be conducted without interference from either side, Robertson said.



Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/04/27/BUS41D5KIF.DTL