Sweet Crude

Sandy Cioffi

United States

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Synopsis

The story of the Niger Delta and the members of an armed resistance who declare an “oil war” in Nigeria.

REVIEW

Here’s a little known fact that helps explain the events in “Sweet Crude”:  In 2008, the fifth largest exporter of petroleum to the U.S. (after Canada, Saudi Arabia, Mexico and Venezuela) was Nigeria.  And most of that Nigerian crude came from the Niger Delta.

“Sweet Crude” is not the film that director Sandy Cioffi set out to make. That one began as a feature about a library being built by the Ijaw, an isolated Niger Delta indigenous people.  But as Cioffi became aware of the destitute condition of her subjects amid some of the most productive oil wells in the world (pumping “sweet crude,” the most easily refined petroleum), the subject changed.  Then it changed again as the Ijaw sought peaceful means to prevent the loss of their way of life.  Finally, despite their leaders’ commitment to nonviolence, small bands of Ijaw took to the bush in armed rebellion.  And Cioffi was there to film it all, from celebration for the new school to revolt against the government.

That revolt becomes a major story in American news organizations’ reports.  Rather than focus on why small bands of rebels exist, the media, in its search for simplistic sound bites, describe their actions as “terrorism,” and, despite the absence of any real evidence, implies they’re connected to Al Quaida.

Probably nobody will be surprised that the names of such corporations as Chevron, Shell, Mobil, Texaco and Exxon come up with regularity.

“Sweet Crude” may make you angry, but it is a compelling film. Especially effective is its focus on both Ijaw leaders and simple tribal members.  Impacted by environmental degradation, and their way of life endangered, they find themselves caught up in a maelstrom of international events.

Soldiers physically prevented Cioffi from going into the bush on one occasion, but it tells its story about the human cost to bring oil to the West in a powerfully honest way.

-David Feldman