Pakistanis angry over detentions in Times Sq. case Monday, May 24, 2010
ISLAMABAD – Relatives of three men detained by Pakistan for alleged links to the suspect in the attempted Times Square bombing say the men are innocent.
They
AFP - Thursday, August 6TAIPEI (AFP) - - Taiwan's Beijing-friendly government on Wednesday denied boycotting an Australian film festival amid a row over the e
BERLIN (Reuters) - Chancellor Angela Merkel suffered a double blow on Thursday as a senior party ally in east German
Minister seeks closure of anti-Berlusconi websites Wednesday, December 16, 2009
ROME (AFP) - – The Italian government moved Tuesday to close down Internet sites encouraging further violence against Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who
By ELAINE KURTENBACH,AP Business Writer AP - Wednesday, March 18SHANGHAI - Asia's stock market rally seemed to be running out of steam Wednesday, despite an
Navigation
Primary Navigation
Home
Singapore
Asia Pacific
World
Business
Entertainment
Sports
Technology
Top Stories
Most Popular
Secondary Navigation
Asia Pacific
World
Search
Search:
Sting brings music, eco-message to Sundance fest
By DAVID GERMAIN,AP Movie Writer AP - Tuesday, January 20
PARK CITY, Utah - Sting drew cheers with an impromptu jam session at the Sundance Film Festival, but his real purpose was to bring attention to a film dealing with the singer's other passion: rainforest preservation.
Joe Berlinger's "Crude" traces 15 years of a class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of Ecuador residents who claim that oil producer Chevron Corp. is liable for contaminating water supplies around the headwaters of the Amazon River.
Sting and wife Trudie Styler are founders of the Rainforest Foundation, and they became involved at Berlinger's behest. The film chronicles Styler's fact-finding trip to Ecuador and includes footage of Sting performing with the Police at last summer's Live Earth music marathon on behalf of global-warming issues.
"I have a walk-on in this film and nothing else. I'm here to support the missus," Sting said in an interview alongside Styler, Berlinger and plaintiffs' attorneys Pablo Fajardo and Steven Donziger.
"I think it's a great battle to fight," said Sting, whose Sundance visit included performing with the house band at a lodge sponsored by Gibson guitars.
"All the things we've been arguing against and about are involved in this film. The right to breathe clean air, to drink fresh water, to feed your children and have a healthy life. No one has the right to stand in the way of that."
Berlinger, whose documentaries include "Brother's Keeper," "Paradise Lost" and "Metallica: Some Kind of Monster," heads into the rainforests in "Crude" to record field arguments with the judge and legal teams involved in the lawsuit. He also interviews indigenous people who claim oil-tainted water has caused cancer, skin lesions and other ailments.
"I'm used to seeing great environmental and humanitarian tragedies and problems, and throwing Sting's light around that raises dollars to help relieve them. But I didn't bargain for the devastation I saw when I got there," Styler said. "Speaking with mothers who were nurturing their children with murky, brown, petrol-smelling, horrible water containing many, many contaminants. ... They are in dire need of help."
Plaintiffs' claim Texaco, which was bought by Chevron in 2001, left an environmental mess when it departed Ecuador in the early 1990s after decades of oil drilling.
Chevron contends it was absolved of liability by a 1998 agreement between Ecuador and Texaco, which carried out a $40 million cleanup.
The Rainforest Foundation is helping to bring in tanks to capture rain and provide clean drinking water as a stopgap measure, but the plaintiffs say Chevron needs to pay for long-term measures.
"We're all conscious of the fact that the world without petroleum would basically stop," said Fajardo, the plaintiffs' lead attorney, speaking in Spanish translated by Donziger, an American attorney consulting on the case.
"If these companies act to a greater responsibility, respecting life, I believe we could coexist with oil companies. The problem isn't petroleum in and of itself. It's how it's drilled in our case."
"Crude," one of 16 films in Sundance's U.S. documentary competition, presents a fairly balanced portrait of the case, with Chevron's side of the story well represented.
The company's attorneys and chief environmental scientist argue that its former partner, Petroecuador, continued polluting the area after Texaco departed and that its own research did not support plaintiffs' claims that oil contamination presented health risks.
Berlinger said he set out to present all sides of the story, but he came away with a strong conviction himself.
"When we destroy the rainforest, we destroy our own livelihood. When we fill up our gas tanks in this country with relatively cheap gasoline compared to the rest of the world, it's at the expense of other people who have lived in harmony with nature," Berlinger said. "That was a life-changing epiphany for me. I had heard it as catch-phrases before, but I had never truly felt it."
___
On the Net:
http://festival.sundance.org/2009
Email Story
IM Story
Printable View
Blog This
Recommend this article
Average (0 votes)
Sign in to recommend this article »
Most Recommended Stories »
Related Articles: Entertainment & Lifestyle
Celebrities make service pledge videos to Obama on MySpaceAFP - 1 hour 56 minutes ago
Russia's music tunes in to international marketplaceAFP - 2 hours 23 minutes ago
Sting brings music, eco-message to Sundance festAP - Tuesday, January 20
Japanese fado singer captivates LisbonAFP - Tuesday, January 20
Farmhouse from UK cult film "Withnail" up for saleReuters - Tuesday, January 20
Most Popular – Entertainment
Viewed
'Overwhelming emotion' at star-studded inaugural concert
Zimbabwe unveils $100 trillion banknote
'Dogs don't wear condoms,' says Baywatch star Anderson
Faulty gene condemns millions in India to heart disease: study
Hamas announces one-week truce after Israel ceasefire
View Complete List »
Search:
Home
Singapore
Asia Pacific
World
Business
Entertainment
Sports
Technology
Top Stories
Most Popular