In one outtake from the documentary, a Donziger dinner companion says the judge might be killed, presumably by irate local residents, if he were to rule for Chevron. It says the company cleaned up all the waste pits it was responsible for and that it no longer has property in Ecuador. Indigenous tribe members and local subsistence farmers say Texaco wrecked a wide swath of Ecuador’s eastern Amazon region in the 1970s and ‘80s by dumping drilling waste into unlined pits and leaving them to fester, a charge the company denies.Ĭhevron inherited the case when it bought Texaco in 2001. So what we want to do is take over the court with a massive protest.” “We believe they make decisions based on who they fear the most, not based on what the law should dictate. “We need to do more politically, to control the court, to pressure the court,” Donziger says on one clip.

Reporters in Ecuador have just recently been able to view them. federal courts meant to block the plaintiffs from seizing assets should the Lago Agrio court decide against the company.

The clips, which did not appear in the final version of the film, were subpoenaed as part of actions brought by Chevron in U.S. It’s dirty.”Ĭhevron says the outtakes show enough misconduct by the plaintiffs to render any judgment against it illegitimate. “There are almost no rules here,” he says at another point. The 2009 documentary film “Crude” was made with the cooperation of New York-based lawyer Steven Donziger, who has scaled back his role in representing the plaintiffs after outtakes from the film showed him in Ecuador discussing tactics to pressure a local judge into ruling in their favor.Īt one point he muses about paying protesters to surround the courthouse in the Amazon town of Lago Agrio where the case is being heard.

Judicial consent movie clips