Source: Cool Earth
Oil giant Chevron is fighting a rainforest documentary maker for the raw footage used to make the 2009 film Crude.
The award winning film, directed by Joe Berlinger, aimed to highlight the environmental impact of the oil firm's workings in the Amazon rainforest and claimed to show the alleged victims of oil contamination in the region.However, Chevron is now demanding that the raw footage of the film be shown to help it fight its ongoing court battle against an environmental lawsuit brought by a group of Ecuadorians.
The firm is being sued for damages amounting to billions of dollars. Those behind the lawsuit claim that livestock, people and the environment have been poisoned by Chevron failing to properly clean up after its rainforest work.
They also claim that the firm's dealings have led to higher levels of illnesses including leukaemia, but this is contested by Chevron.
Chevron's defence lawyers claim that the firm thoroughly cleaned up the areas of rainforest it worked in and says that any further pollution is the fault of firms who came after.