THE LEVEL of violence required by governments and resource exploitation companies to produce oil and gas is “unsustainable”, whether in north Mayo or the Niger Delta, a US film director has said.
In Galway yesterday, where a documentary she has made on the Niger delta was screened at the annual film fleadh, Sandy Cioffi said pressing issues such as climate change would never be resolved through such an approach. “There seems to be a common thread in so many situations where oil and gas companies do not want community involvement,” Ms Cioffi said.
While she was not fully familiar with the situation with the Corrib gas project in north Mayo, she was aware from discussions with human rights interests that a “similar blueprint” was being worked from. In Nigeria, where she filmed the development of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (Mend), US military intelligence had offered its services to the Nigerian military to quell dissent. Communities involved in resistance were infiltrated.
Ms Cioffi, a Seattle-based film and video artist, her producer and film crew and guide were arrested and held for five days in Nigeria during filming last year and their material was confiscated.
Entitled Sweet Crude, the documentary focuses on the human and environmental consequences of 50 years of oil extraction, the history of non-violent protest and the students who became members of Mend in the Niger delta.
A report published last month by Amnesty International on the impact of the oil industry there says the consequent pollution and environmental damage has violated residents’ rights and criticises the Nigerian government for failing to hold oil companies to account for the pollution they have caused.
Ms Cioffi, Rossport farmer Willie Corduff of Pobal Chill Chomáin in Erris, and journalist and author Michael McCaughan took part in a panel discussion. Shell EP Ireland and Fr Kevin Hegarty of Erris, who is member of the Corrib gas scholarship board, confirmed yesterday that they were invited to participate, but declined. Fr Hegarty said he could not attend for work reasons.
