Chevron in Ecuador

The archive of the Clean Up Ecuador campaign website


Trudie Styler Personally Invites 6000 Chevron Employees to CRUDE

CRUDE Documentary to Premiere in Chevron’s Backyard

Amazon Watch

Amazon Watch
25 September 2009 - FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Karen Hinton at +1.703.798.3109


San Francisco, CA – CRUDE, the acclaimed and controversial documentary chronicling the $27 billion lawsuit against Chevron in Ecuador, opens in San Francisco, Chevron’s backyard, this Friday. In advance of the premiere, today prominent human rights activist featured in CRUDE, Trudie Styler, has extended a personal invitation to all 6,000 Bay Area Chevron employees to attend a screening of the film for free.
 
To further efforts to inspire dialogue with Chevron employees about the film, this morning Ms. Trudie Styler sent a personal invitation to every Chevron employee in the San Francisco Bay Area, including CEO David O’Reilly. In her invitation Ms. Styler explained the impact of her experiences visiting Ecuadorian rainforest communities living with oil pollution and contaminated drinking water, which is documented in the film.

“You may know me as Sting’s wife, and you may know of my work for the environment and human rights. You may also have heard my name mentioned as one of the celebrities speaking out in support of the 30,000 Ecuadorean citizens who are pursuing Chevron to clean up the pollution the company left behind in their homeland,” wrote Ms. Styler in her letter to 6,000 Bay Area Chevron employees. “Many people will assume that you and I must be on different sides of the fence on this issue. But I don't believe that. I'm willing to bet that you and I, and all of your colleagues, agree that everyone has the fundamental right to the life-supporting elements of clean air and clean water…I'd like to give you the opportunity to make up your own mind about what has been going on in Ecuador, and to consider how justice can be achieved for the people suffering there. I’d like to invite you to the movies.”

Last week, CRUDE was the highest grossing film per-screen in the US.  CRUDE is a high-stakes David vs. Goliath legal drama with 30,000 Amazon rainforest dwellers facing down the 5th largest corporation in the world for the dumping of 18 billion gallons of toxic wastewater and abandoning over 900 unlined crude oil pits in the midst of rainforest communities.

“With the release of the film CRUDE, Chevron goes on trial in the court of public opinion. CRUDE allows the audience to judge for themselves how much responsibility Chevron bears for the ecological and public health crisis in the Ecuadorian Amazon,” said Mitchell Anderson, Corporate Accountability Campaigner for the Amazon Watch.

CRUDE’s success has been met by attacks on the film’s integrity by Chevron representatives. However, Chevron Spokesperson, Kent Robertson, would not confirm whether any Chevron representative has seen the film despite screening offers from Director Joe Berlinger. Today’s invitation by Ms. Styler offered Chevron employees free tickets redeemable at the San Francisco Lumiere or Berkeley’s Shattuck Theaters.

 “By refusing to clean up the mess left from their oil exploration in Ecuador, Chevron is letting children suffer from some of the world's most heinous environmental destruction when they could be doing something about it.” said Rebecca Tarbotton, Program Director of Rainforest Action Network.


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Amazon Watch works to protect the rainforest and advance the rights of indigenous peoples in the Amazon Basin. We partner with indigenous and environmental organizations in campaigns for human rights, corporate accountability and the preservation of the Amazon's ecological systems.

Rainforest Action Network campaigns for the forests, their inhabitants and the natural systems that sustain life by transforming the global marketplace through education, grassroots organizing, and non-violent direct action.