The Niger Delta is among the most polluted places on earth, says UC Berkeley geography professor Michael Watts, in Sandy Cioffi's moving documentary Sweet Crude. Cioffi originally intended to make a film about the opening of a library in the Niger Delta. The library was meant to be a gesture of peace between previously warring ethnic groups. A local student organization played a significant role in building the library and they had rallied the community to enter in an unlikely partnership with the Nigerian government, individual Americans and Chevron. Those same students on the morning of the library commission surprised everyone with a protest that hinted on the true nature of the unrest and conflict in the region. Cioffi felt compelled to shift focus and travel with the student activists down the waterways of the Niger Delta. She found that despite the 700 billion in oil revenues multinational corporations have exploited from the Delta the indigenous people live in abject poverty. The acid rain that falls in the afternoons because of the constant gas flaring is toxic enough to destroy metal roofs and fishing nets. The shorelines covered in toxic sludge had once been white sandy beaches. Life expectancy has dropped from over 60 to 40 years old. The subjects in the film are not asking for handouts they are intelligent and clear in their demands for multinational corporations to leave the Niger Delta or give them full control of their resources. Their spirit turns a somber issue into a lesson in character, guts, and determination. Worth noting is the respect and artistry Cioffi and cinematographer Sean Porter put into crafting a complete documentary worthy of praise.
-GUSTAVIUS SMITH
