BP Spill Documentary 'Crude Justice' Shows Dilemma Faced by Gulf Residents

(Oct. 25) -- "With Katrina, we knew what we had to do," Marla Cooper, of Venice, La., says a few minutes into "Crude Justice," a new 17-minute film about the BP oil spill. "We rebuilt. But for this, how do we rebuild?"

The film, which premieres Tuesday evening in Washington, does not answer that question. Victims trying to recoup their economic losses can negotiate payments from BP's $20 billion fund, administered by Kenneth Feinberg, or join the thousands of other residents of the Gulf of Mexico region who have already sued BP in federal court.

Crude Justice from Alliance for Justice on Vimeo.

The movie, produced by the liberal-leaning activist group Alliance for Justice and narrated by environmentalist and actor Ed Begley Jr., steers clear of advising which course may be the wiser choice. But it lays out the pitfalls of suing.

Exhibit One: the "epic legal battle" over the 1989 Exxon Valdez tanker spill in Prince William Sound, Alaska, that finally ended 19 years later when the Supreme Court slashed the damage award to $500 million. (A lower court had ordered the company to pay punitive damages of $2.5 billion.)

"Valdez hangs over this BP blowout like a cloud," said Oliver Houck, a professor at Tulane University Law School in New Orleans. "We're almost the son of Valdez."

The camera captures shrimpers and fishermen on their boats as they survey oiled waters in the gulf. George Barisich, president of the United Commercial Fishermen's Association, frames the dilemma for those who may not be able to measure the damage for years.

"If you take the three-year settlement and everything comes back in two years, you win," he said. "If you take the three-year settlement and five, six, seven, eight, 10 years you still don't have production, you lose. So it's a crap shoot."

Nan Aron, president of Alliance for Justice, said the film was made because the spill "raises issues of access to justice and the corporate domination of the courts, which are cornerstone issues" for her group.

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"There's a tremendous fear on the part of people in the gulf that they'll be forgotten and years from now, Americans will hear stories that justice wasn't achieved," she said.

Amy Weiss, spokeswoman for the Gulf Coast Claims Facility, otherwise known as the Feinberg Fund, said the fund is still in the midst of paying out emergency claims, which end Nov. 23.

Beginning Nov. 24, claimants who accept final payment must forfeit their right to sue BP or its partners.

The screening begins at 6:30 p.m. at the Woman's National Democratic Club. It also can be viewed at the Alliance for Justice website.