Support 'Crude' Filmmakers in Fight Against Chevron
We believe in supporting independent filmmakers that work on important causes, which is why we want to alert your attention to what's happening with the documentary film Crude: The Real Price of Oil. From the Crude blog:
...The makers of Crude were recently served with subpoenas by Chevron, in an effort to gain access to the nearly 600 hours of raw footage accumulated during the making of the film. Our attorneys filed a response, stating that our footage is protected by the journalist’s privilege and forcing us to hand it over to any third party (either Chevron, the plaintiffs’ lawyers, or anyone else) is a violation of our First Amendment rights. The hearing was held on Friday, April 30th in New York. Last Thursday, U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan ruled against us, unfortunately denying our arguments. We are appealing this decision, as we feel it is a violation of our First Amendment rights and could have a seriously chilling effect on documentary filmmakers and journalists everywhere. We appreciate the incredible outpouring of support from people in the documentary community and allies all over the world, and we hope that this extremely troubling situation will conclude in our favor.
This is an important issue of First Amendment rights, and even Bill Moyers has weighed in on it over on the Huffington Post. To help, you can support the Crude filmmakers by signing the open letter here.