SWEET CRUDE is a brilliant film. Starting out as a for-hire documentary about a library being built in the Niger Delta town of Oporoza in 2005, Sandy Cioffi’s documentary quickly evolves as the filmmaker becomes more interested in the people and communities surrounding her. Over the course of 3 years, Cioffi’s SWEET CRUDE follows the events in the Niger Delta as a small group of peaceful, intelligent protests against the government slowly morph into something more violent and militant while the world looks the other way or, worse, pays attention just long enough to simplify a complex situation with the nowadays seemingly all-inclusive “terrorism” brush-off. And just as the extent of the protests change from non-violent to violent, so too does Cioffi’s role, as she goes from objective documentarian to ambassador of the dissent to the world at-large. A tale of power gone corrupt, industry destroying without care for the consequences and the people left to deal with it all, SWEET CRUDE absolutely must be seen, and change must happen soon, because the Niger Delta is a region on the verge of a era of full-blown war that can be averted, if enough people knew enough to care.
SWEET CRUDE is more than just a call to arms for change, however. It is also an amazing study of everything from how power should deal with dissent to how peaceful dissent can devolve into violence, and therefore should find itself as studied in a sociology class as it could be in a documentary ethics class (more on that below). In SWEET CRUDE we see what happens when a peaceful and intelligent group comes together for change (the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND)), and is repeatedly met with violent response from the government military, the Joint Task Force (JTF). After their message is ignored long enough, and the situation becomes even more dire for their community, whether you agree with it or not, you can understand how the peaceful message can change into a more forceful, violent one. And yet, even as MEND finds themselves abducting oil-workers as hostages to get attention, they also remain open to a dialogue for actual change. which is one of the reasons this film is so important: if the government truly listened, instead of giving lip-service to peace one second while sending in the military the next, if a third-party mediator offered insight or international pressure on the region, the region would begin to stabilize. This isn’t a terrorist situation bent on spreading fear and unease in the Niger Delta; this is a community trying to survive on their land, any way they can, and if they can do so peacefully, they will.
From a documentary ethics perspective, the film is very honest and clear about when things go from being a job-for-hire, to something more approaching an objective documentary, to documentarian as ambassador for a message and potential propaganda-ist, to active participant by way of being forced into the narrative due to the consequences of taking on the role of ambassador (Cioffi and crew were arrested and detained by Nigerian military in April 2008; despite the filmmaker and crew’s eventual release, the military seized footage that is still in military custody). It is this upfront honesty that makes SWEET CRUDE as much a call to arms for change in the Niger Delta as it is a film that could, and should, be studied in documentary film classes. Very often the changes in a documentary’s purpose are either purposefully hidden, or so subtle as to require an active movie-watching that, forgive me, most audiences don’t give it. By being so clear about what is going on, the film eliminates or minimizes any criticism that it was always, and is simply, propaganda for MEND while also allowing those less discerning audience-goers an opportunity to see the dynamics of documentary ethics exposed in such an obvious light. Simply, if you’ve never questioned the ideas and perspectives delivered to you by a documentary filmmaker, this film gives you point blank examples of why you should question everything.
The film also points out the hypocrisy of the mainstream media, and the extent to which fear truly drives what we do or do not see on the nightly news. When ABC News uses Cioffi as a go-between to set up an interview with MEND, you can understand why Cioffi, wanting to help get the true message of what is going on in the Niger Delta, agrees to help. But when you see the interview that takes place, centered predominantly on terrorism and the possibility of Al Qaeda interference in the Niger Delta, you realize, if you weren’t already cynical enough to predict, that ABC News had no interest in uncovering the truth. Simply, they had the story they were going to run already written and ready to go, and were just looking for sound bytes to fill out that perspective. When they don’t get it, predictably, the interview with an actual member of MEND drops by the wayside while a fear-based, terrorism gone amok story runs in its place. Despite my own cynicism, it didn’t really hit home how screwed up the media in America can be until I saw the blatant examples played out in SWEET CRUDE. After seeing SWEET CRUDE, it becomes obvious that everyone is seeing the situation wrong: this isn’t about adding more guns to secure the Niger Delta or the oil companies stake there, this is about diplomacy and watching the region secure itself. The fear is, of course, that this road will only get steeper, and soon it will be too late.
Which is the main statement the film makes: What if the world paid attention before it was too late? I’m not saying you’re going to watch this film and feel the same way I do, however I can’t imagine anyone can watch this film and break the ongoing Niger Delta crisis down as simply “terrorists destroying oil exports” like the mainstream media seems capable of doing. whether you agree with the politics or ideologies discussed doesn’t change the fact that the military is still raiding and wiping out villages, that the poverty level, and environmental decay due to oil spills and other industrial waste, is appalling and that the region is unstable. And maybe you’ll come away from the film, like I did, with an interest in educating yourself a little better about the world around you and, at the same time, more conscious of the media’s sometimes well-intentioned, but more often misinformed, opinions and ideas.
If you do want to make a difference, or generally become more informed about the Niger Delta crisis, the website for SWEET CRUDE has a number of links to both information and things that you, or I, can do to be more active in promoting change and diplomacy in the Niger Delta.
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SWEET CRUDE is playing now as part of the DocuWeeks NY 2009 Program until August 20, 2009. Additional upcoming screenings can be found at SWEET CRUDE’s website.
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