Documentary

The U.S. Court of Appeals in New York City (2nd Cir.) Thursday affirmed a federal district court's ruling that required a documentary filmmaker to turn over all unused footage from his film, "Crude: The Real Price of Oil," which chronicled Ecuadorians who sued Texaco (now owned by Chevron) regarding alleged pollution of the Ecuador rainforest.

At least one judge on the appellate panel that will decide whether a documentary filmmaker must turn over 600 hours of unused footage seemed skeptical on Wednesday of the argument that a journalist's privilege protects all of the documentary outtakes.

The Court of Appeals in New York City (2nd Cir.) heard oral arguments yesterday about whether Joe Berlinger, the maker of "Crude: The Real Price of Oil," should have to give his outtakes to the Chevron Corporation, which says they're needed to fight pending legal battles.

Documentary filmmaker Joe Berlinger will not have to turn over 600 hours of raw footage to Chevron for now, at least until the appellate court hears the merits of his appeal.

A documentary association and filmmakers this week wrote an open letter opposing a judge’s ruling that Chevron could review a documentarian’s raw footage and stressed the importance of shield laws for reporters.

A New York federal judge on Thursday ruled that though a reporter's privilege applies to a documentary filmmaker, he must still hand over unused footage to Chevron in a dispute over whether the oil company polluted the Amazon rain forest.

The documentary filmmaker subpoenaed by Chevron in the oil company's dispute over whether it polluted the Amazon rain forest appeared in a Manhattan federal court on Friday to explain why unused footage from "Crude: The Real Price of Oil" should be protected by the state's reporters privilege.

“For him to be turned into an arm of private litigation would undo his ability to do this kind of movie,” said attorney Maura Wogan of Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz, who argued against the subpoena.

A federal judge in Manhattan on Friday will hear a dispute between Chevron and a documentary filmmaker over a subpoena requesting hundreds of hours of raw footage taken during the filming of the documentary "Crude," Variety reported.