But early today Judge Lewis Kaplan stayed his decision and any due date for production of the footage until May 31st. But he did not stay his decision pending appeal. Before Judge Kaplan’s ruling, the Ecuadorian plaintiffs suing Chevron for deliberately dumping toxic waste into the Amazon rainforest filed an emergency stay motion with the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.

The motion says:

“For twent-five years, Chevron dumped billions of gallons of toxic waster into rivers, wells, drinking water and the land of thousands of indigenous residents and farmers in the Ecuadorian Amazon. Now, after seventeen years of litigation, including nine years fighting jurisdiction in the Southern District, and an over seven year litigation in Chevron’s chosen forum of Ecuador involving 200,000 pages of evidence, 63,000 chemical sampling results, testimony from dozens of witnesses, and dozens of judicial field inspections, Chevron seeks to subpoena 600 hours of footage from a prominent documentary filmmaker (Joe Berlinger) whose film, Crude, helped to expose and publicize Chevron’s conduct in the Amazon.”

In the motion to appeal, the plaintiffs argue that Chevron’s demand for the film footage will be a blow against journalists’ rights and will set a dangerous precedent.

New York, New York (May 19, 2009) – Chevron’s attempt to use a U.S. federal court to gain access to more than 600 hours of private video outtakes of its Ecuador environmental disaster from the celebrated filmmaker Joe Berlinger has run into a groundswell of criticism as the issue heads up to an appellate court for judicial review.

A hearing to stay Chevron’s subpoena so the appeals court can consider the issue will take place today (May 19) at 2 p.m. before Judge Lewis Kaplan at 500 Pearl St. in Manhattan.

On Monday, the Ecuadorian plaintiffs suing Chevron for deliberately dumping billions of gallons of toxic waste into the Amazon rainforest appealed a decision by Judge Kaplan ordering Berlinger to turn over his entire body of his footage to Chevron. Berlinger shot the footage over a three-year period for a documentary on the lawsuit, Crude, that has garnered several awards and was one of the most critically acclaimed films of 2009.

Lawyers for Berlinger, who has vowed to fight Chevron, filed their notice of appeal last week. Berlinger is backed by the International Documentary Association, a group of filmmakers that includes 20 Academy Award winners, which issued a letter of support last week.

“Let us be clear about the important issue at stake: Chevron is trying to steamroll the First Amendment rights of a noted filmmaker as part of a campaign to evade accountability for an environmental disaster that has devastated the lives of thousands of people in the Ecuadorian Amazon,” said Ilann Maazel, a lawyer who represents indigenous groups suing the oil giant.

Judge Kaplan’s decision is being seen as an attack on the ability of filmmakers and journalists to cultivate sources and play their traditional watchdog role to ferret out corporate and governmental abuse. In interviews, filmmakers Michael Moore (FAHRENHEIT 9/11, BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE, ROGER & ME) and Ric Burns (ANDY WARHOL, NEW YORK) condemned the court’s ruling.

“It makes me shudder to think that all that stuff would be turned over…not because of any secrets that are revealed, but because of the killer blow to the trust a filmmaker cultivated, deeply, over a very long period of time,” Burns said in an interview.

Also among those speaking out against the oil giant:
• Journalist Bill Moyers, writing on The Huffington Post, said Chevron’s actions were putting in jeopardy “the whole integrity of the process of journalism…” He also said the case offers a clear argument for a federal shield law to protect journalists. His article can be viewed at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bill-moyers/chevrons-crude-attempt-to_b_576595.html.
• Trudie Styler, a film producer who co-founded the Rainforest Foundation with husband Sting, told Katie Couric of CBS News that Chevron’s move is “unheard of” and added that the oil giant had created a “hell” for the people of Ecuador. Her interview can be seen at http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=6481132n.
• Moore, quoted in The New York Times, said of the Kaplan decision: “The chilling effect of this is … the next whistleblower at the next corporation is going to think twice about showing me some documents if that information has to be turned over to the corporation that they’re working for.”
• Burns labeled Judge Kaplan’s decision “insane” and said it could deliver a “killer blow” to how documentary filmmakers work.

Berlinger’s footage chronicles the Ecuador trial phase of the 17-year legal battle between indigenous tribes and the oil giant over massive oil contamination in Ecuador’s Amazon rainforest. The case, Aguinda v. ChevronTexaco, is considered the largest environmental action in the world, with damages estimated at up to $27.3 billion.

The case was moved from U.S. federal court to Ecuador at Chevron’s request in 2002. To induce the dismissal, Chevron at the time claimed that Ecuador’s courts were fair and that it would pay any adverse judgment. But now that the scientific evidence at trial proves Chevron is guilty, the company is trying to paint the trial as unfair and wrongly believes it can use the Berlinger footage for that purpose, said Maazel.

“Chevron’s real agenda is to intimidate journalists like Berlinger who have the courage to aim their lens at Chevron and expose the company’s human rights problems,” said Maazel. CRUDE was named one of the best documentaries of 2009 by the National Board of Review and won awards at 27 film festivals, in addition to being an official selection at Sundance.

Berlinger, who has won numerous awards for his documentaries, has credits that include METALLICA: SOME KIND OF MONSTER, PARADISE LOST, and BROTHER’S KEEPER. Berlinger is arguing that his footage is covered by First Amendment privileges that protect reporters and others in the newsgathering business from being compelled to reveal confidential sources and material.

The issue has become a flash point recently in the federal judiciary and has led some reporters to spend time in jail rather than disclose the identity of their sources.

The Aguinda plaintiffs separately argued in court filings that Chevron’s attempt to subpoena the footage amounted to little more than a “fishing expedition” designed to “silence filmmakers such as Joe Berlinger whose work (however evenhanded) has helped expose Chevron’s shocking and unconscionable misconduct.”

Chevron has admitted at trial that Texaco deliberately discharged billions of gallons of toxic wastewater into the streams and rivers of Ecuador while it was the exclusive operator of a large concession from 1964 to 1990. Evidence before the court indicates that cancer rates and other oil-related diseases in the area where Texaco operated have skyrocketed, decimating indigenous groups and poisoning the ecosystem in an area the size of Rhode Island.

“I write to you on behalf of Amazon Watch to express our hope that as Chief Executive of Chevron Corporation you will have the fortitude and vision to genuinely address the most painful and immediate challenge facing your company – the Ecuador disaster.

Our hope is that you will not miss this critical opportunity to resolve the human and environmental tragedy in Ecuador and transform Chevron into the responsible 21st century energy company professed in ‘The Chevron Way’ and in your ‘Human Energy’ advertising campaigns.

Your company is currently facing a $27.3 billion financial liability in Ecuador. We ask that you reflect on Chevron’s handling of the Ecuador situation over the course of the last decade. You should remember Chevron’s Annual General Shareholder Meeting in April 2001 – on the eve of the Texaco acquisition – when I delivered to your company a binder, titled “El Dorado,” with more than 500 pages of comprehensive evidence documenting Texaco’s massive environmental contamination in the Ecuadorian Amazon. At that meeting, I warned Chevron that by acquiring Texaco the company would not only take on the moral responsibility of rectifying the tragedy in the Amazon, but also assume a very costly financial liability.

Despite increasing shareholder and analyst concern, the growing public demand that Chevron take responsibility for its actions in Ecuador, and the resulting multi-billion liability they have spawned, Amazon Watch has witnessed your company pursue an expensive, ethically questionable, and counterproductive policy with regard to the Ecuador case.

Mr. Watson, as you surely know, the situation on the ground is dire. Thousands of acres of once pristine rainforest have been devastated by oil pollution. More than 30,000 indigenous peoples and campesinos have been left without clean water to drink. Children play beside toxic waste pits.

Young women have been ravaged by stomach and uterine cancer due to poisoned water. As you are well aware, Texaco has admitted to having deliberately released 18 billion gallons of toxic wastewater into the waterways of the Ecuadorian Amazon, and to having left hundreds of abandoned unlined pits filled with crude oil and poison sludge over the course of more than two decades of oil operations. And now, as a direct result, a devastating public health crisis has consumed the region.

We are keenly attuned to Chevron’s public relations strategy with respect to this matter. The basic approach is to consistently blame the contamination of the Amazon on Petroecuador, Ecuador’s National Oil Company. Petroecuador’s poor record of environmental stewardship – largely because it has used an oil production system built by Texaco and designed to pollute – does not diminish Texaco’s responsibility for catastrophic contamination from 1964 to 1990. Texaco’s deliberate dumping dwarfs any subsequent pollution. Rather than continuing to shift the blame to Petruecuador, it is time for Chevron to assume the responsibility for Texaco’s legacy in Ecuador…”

Amazon Watch is a nonprofit group that works to protect the rainforest and advance the rights of indigenous people in the Amazon Basin. The group created this video showing people in the affected communities urging the Chevron CEO to do the right thing in Ecuador by cleaning up the rainforest contamination.

Amazon Watch has also set up a petition drive to support the rainforest communities’ demands for a clean-up, compensation for health and environmental impacts, and access to health care and potable water for all affected people.

You can sign the petition here: http://chevrontoxico.com/take-action/send-chevron-a-message.html

I first heard of this effort in an email from International Cry, a “free online magazine that provides news, videos, and urgent alerts centered on indigenous people and their struggles around the world to reclaim their lands, defend their traditions, enact their rights, and to quite literally survive.”

Both Amazon Watch and International Cry provide information you’ll seldom see elsewhere, and both groups need our support.

For more information, here is a link to a blog maintained by the team suing Chevron over its human rights problems in Ecuador and elsewhere: The Chevron Pit.