Today, a federal appeals judge in Manhattan ordered a June 8 hearing to consider a subpoena issued on May 6 by a federal district judge that ordered Crude filmmaker Joe Berlinger to turn over hundreds of hours of unused footage from his film.
Crude focuses on a lawsuit by Ecuadoreans against Chevron over pollution in the Amazon. Chevron is seeking 600 hours of footage from the film in an effort to shore up their case in the long-running lawsuit. Lawyers for Berlinger are arguing on First Amendment grounds that his material is protected by journalistic privilege.
After the subpoena was issued earlier this month, the documentary community spoke out in favor of Berlinger by writing an open letter spearheaded by Patrick Creadon and Doug Blush, supported by the IDA and signed by over 20 Academy Award winners and nominees and many others (see full letter here).
Since its release, hundreds more from the filmmaking community have added their support to the letter via websites such as documentary.org and AJ Schnack's blog (see comments sections for both articles to read additional signees).
Get the latest on Crude at the film's website, where you can find information about how to financially back the extraordinarily costly legal battle Berlinger is facing.