It shouldn’t come as news that petro-chemical giants operate as aggressive parasites all over the globe, squeezing out every last drop of oil at whatever ransom governments set; devastating the environment and poisoning indigenous communities. We know this, but we should not accept it. There is something truly rancid and dismal about the corporate denials from Chevron executives and their lawyers as they stonewall a reparations case brought by the native people of Ecuador that has dragged on for 13 years already with no end in sight. Berlinger’s documentary suggests that public relations may be a more productive route than the courts for cases such as this, in which case the more people who see this film the better. Consider it a down-to-earth postscript to Avatar.
NC (105min)