Crude reviewed

Crude

No Rating | CP Grade: BJoe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky's Brother's Keeper and Paradise Lost are model blends of forensic documentary and direct cinema. But Crude, Berlinger's first solo feature doc, doesn't quite put all the pieces together. He's got a gripping subject in the case of the Cofán, the indigenous Amazonian tribe who have been all but wiped out by residual pollution from Texaco's three decades of dumping contaminants in their drinking water. And the story supplies compelling central characters, namely Ecuadorian lawyer Pablo Fajardo, a legal novice who has essentially learned his trade over years of litigating the same claim, and the voluble, volatile American Steve Donziger. But neither comes close enough to center stage to supply the film with narrative thrust, and the stonewalling tactics of Chevron (who inherited the lawsuit when they merged with Texaco) go frustratingly unanswered.Comment:  For more on the subject, see Native Documentaries and News.