Oil & Water

Filmmakers Francine Strickwerda and Laurel Spellman Smith tackle the sad state of crude-oil pollution on the upper Amazon River in Ecuador, centering on two culture-crossed eco-activists whose unusual backstories give viewers hope that the next generation will help atone for the last. Hugo Lucitante was an adolescent member of the Cofán tribe who garnered world attention by addressing the United Nations about petroleum spills that despoiled his ancestral lands. As a consequence, Hugo was sponsored by an American woman to attend school in Seattle, where he received a Western-style education that he could then use to help his people. Graduating (in full tribal regalia), Hugo also married an American girl named Sadie, and the young couple go back and forth between a U.S. existence and living in the rainforest (Sadie adapts well to the hunter/gatherer routine). Meanwhile, David Poritz, who was a precocious schoolboy, also started fighting early for Ecuador's Amazon, ultimately founding a fair-trade NGO that tries to work positively in cooperating with energy multinationals (chiefly Chevron). Both heroes' paths cross during the eight-year narrative arc, during which the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil-rig blowout in the Gulf of Mexico occurs. Presenting both the full-length film and a 55-minute abridged version, this inspiring eco-activist true tale is highly recommended. Aud: C, P. (C. Cassady)