A DARK TRUTH EXPOSES HOW EVEN RAINWATER IS DENIED TO RAINFOREST DENIZENS
A Canadian company has purchased water rights from the government to an Ecuadorian rainforest, extracts all water for sale abroad, but a torrential rain overflows the sewage system, causing an outbreak of cholera. Rather than calling upon WHO to stop the epidemic, the water company executive Bruce Swinton (played by Kim Coates) covers up the problem by agreeing to hire an Ecuadorian general to slaughter the townspeople, though Francisco Francis (played by Forest Whitaker) saves several townspeople and goes into hiding. Bruce’s sister Morgan (played by Deborah Kara Unger) has just cut the ribbon for a new building when a man shoots himself in front of her, proclaiming that the company killed his father in Ecuador. Morgan then seeks the truth and soon hires radio talkshow host Jack Begosian (played by Andy García) to go to Ecuador and report on what has been happening. Begosian, a repentant former CIA agent, had put Francis in jail and now sees an opportunity for redemption: He can bring Francis to his radio program to broadcast the truth. The water company’s future is at stake. Although Morgan is a majority stockholder, she cannot abide the massacre. Machinations by the company to stop Begosian ensue, with a predictable but suspenseful ending. Early in the film, the term “great transformation” is explained as the time some 300 years ago when capitalists bought up feudal lands and evicted peasants, who were forced to work in order to afford food and housing that had formerly been provided by feudal lords. The analogy is to ongoing South American Water Wars. But the film does not claim that the story is actually true. What is portrayed is vaguely similar to Chevron v Naranjo, in which Chevron was fined $18 billion for polluting the water of 30,000 Ecuadorian Amazon residents. Directed by Damian Lee, A Dark Truth, has been nominated by the Political Film Society as best film exposé and best film on human rights of 2013. MH