Director Accepts Limits on Chevron to Footage

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When a judge ordered a documentary filmmaker in May to turn over to Chevron all the unused footage from his 2009 film about an environmental controversy in Ecuador, the director, Joe Berlinger, called the ruling “a trampling of the First Amendment and the journalist’s privilege.”

But when an appeals court modified that ruling on Thursday, ordering Mr. Berlinger to hand over some of those outtakes to Chevron, he applauded. The new ruling, he said, had “preserved the basic standards for nonconfidential material.” He said he did not expect to pursue any further appeals.

Beyond relief over a partial court victory, the striking change in Mr. Berlinger’s tone reflects a developing understanding of the law’s limits in shielding documentarians from becoming part of others’ lawsuits.

“That’s what this fight was all about,” Mr. Berlinger said of the ruling’s limitation. “Just because it’s a big oil company doesn’t mean they don’t have a right to a certain amount of footage or a certain amount of discovery.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/17/movies/17crude.html?th&emc=th