Slippery Slopes: A Forum About Crude and the Investigative Functions of Film
Crude, a lively and gripping documentary directed by Joe Berlinger follows the shifting course of a lawsuit brought by 30,000 Ecuadoreans against Chevron over its responsibility for the country’s contaminated waters and streams. Alternately inspiring, funny, disturbing and infuriating, Crude offers a thoughtful and complex look at the issues surrounding human rights and corporate behavior in Latin America.
Following the 12:00 noon matinee screening of Crude at Landmark's Lumiere Theatre, this forum will address the functions, roles and processes of documentary film as a form of investigative journalism. Phil Bronstein, editor-at-large at the San Francisco Chronicle, will moderate a discussion with Crude director Joe Berlinger, Mitch Anderson, corporate accountability campaigner for Amazon Watch and Robert Rosenthal, executive director of the Center For Investigative Reporting.
Read a letter from Crude filmmaker Joe Berlinger
THE PANEL
Joe Berlinger is an award-winning filmmaker, journalist and photographer whose films include the celebrated documentaries Brother’s Keeper, Paradise Lost and Metallica: Some Kind of Monster. Berlinger’s first independent film Outrageous Taxi Stories (1989) was a cult favorite on the festival circuit. In 1992, Berlinger and frequent collaborator Bruce Sinofsky received international acclaim for their Sundance-winning feature Brother’s Keeper, named 1992’s Best Documentary by the Directors Guild of America, the New York Film Critics Circle and the National Board of Review, and listed one of the Ten Best by over 50 major critics.
Mitch Anderson is Amazon Watch's corporate accountability campaigner, responsible for organizing US-based grassroots, shareholder and media strategies across all of Amazon Watch's campaigns. He is also the lead campaigner in the Clean Up Ecuador campaign, which seeks to hold Chevron accountable for massive environmental contamination in the Ecuadorian Amazon. Prior to joining Amazon Watch, Anderson spearheaded several international fundraising campaigns to support indigenous autonomy.
As editor-at-large, Phil Bronstein is responsible for broad strategic decisions at the San Francisco Chronicle and for the Hearst Corporation. Bronstein represents the Chronicle in community affairs and is the principal public face of the paper. As a reporter, Bronstein has specialized in investigative projects and was a foreign correspondent for eight years. He has won awards for his coverage of the Philippines from the Overseas Press Club, Associated Press, the World Affairs Council and Media Alliance.
An award-winning journalist with nearly 40 years of experience, Robert Rosenthal has worked for some of the most respected newspapers in the country, including the New York Times, Boston Globe, Philadelphia Inquirer and San Francisco Chronicle. As a reporter, his awards include the Overseas Press Club Award for magazine writing, the Sigma Delta Chi Award for distinguished foreign correspondence and the National Association of Black Journalists Award for Third World Reporting.
Free admission to the Forum. Tickets to the film may be purchased at Landmark Cinemas.
Following the 12:00 noon matinee screening of Crude at Landmark's Lumiere Theatre, this forum will address the functions, roles and processes of documentary film as a form of investigative journalism. Phil Bronstein, editor-at-large at the San Francisco Chronicle, will moderate a discussion with Crude director Joe Berlinger, Mitch Anderson, corporate accountability campaigner for Amazon Watch and Robert Rosenthal, executive director of the Center For Investigative Reporting.
Read a letter from Crude filmmaker Joe Berlinger
THE PANEL
Joe Berlinger is an award-winning filmmaker, journalist and photographer whose films include the celebrated documentaries Brother’s Keeper, Paradise Lost and Metallica: Some Kind of Monster. Berlinger’s first independent film Outrageous Taxi Stories (1989) was a cult favorite on the festival circuit. In 1992, Berlinger and frequent collaborator Bruce Sinofsky received international acclaim for their Sundance-winning feature Brother’s Keeper, named 1992’s Best Documentary by the Directors Guild of America, the New York Film Critics Circle and the National Board of Review, and listed one of the Ten Best by over 50 major critics.
Mitch Anderson is Amazon Watch's corporate accountability campaigner, responsible for organizing US-based grassroots, shareholder and media strategies across all of Amazon Watch's campaigns. He is also the lead campaigner in the Clean Up Ecuador campaign, which seeks to hold Chevron accountable for massive environmental contamination in the Ecuadorian Amazon. Prior to joining Amazon Watch, Anderson spearheaded several international fundraising campaigns to support indigenous autonomy.
As editor-at-large, Phil Bronstein is responsible for broad strategic decisions at the San Francisco Chronicle and for the Hearst Corporation. Bronstein represents the Chronicle in community affairs and is the principal public face of the paper. As a reporter, Bronstein has specialized in investigative projects and was a foreign correspondent for eight years. He has won awards for his coverage of the Philippines from the Overseas Press Club, Associated Press, the World Affairs Council and Media Alliance.
An award-winning journalist with nearly 40 years of experience, Robert Rosenthal has worked for some of the most respected newspapers in the country, including the New York Times, Boston Globe, Philadelphia Inquirer and San Francisco Chronicle. As a reporter, his awards include the Overseas Press Club Award for magazine writing, the Sigma Delta Chi Award for distinguished foreign correspondence and the National Association of Black Journalists Award for Third World Reporting.
Free admission to the Forum. Tickets to the film may be purchased at Landmark Cinemas.
September 26, 2009, 2:00 pm
Landmark's Lumiere Theatre
Landmark's Lumiere Theatre