Question & Answers, part 1: Will Shell show up?

Ifie and I are in Amsterdam this week as Poison Fire competes at IDFA, the world’s biggest documentary film festival. We’ve shown the film twice in sold-out cinema theaters. Three more screenings remain. After each show there is a questions and answers sessions. The IDFA audience is wonderful and I wish these Q&A sessions could go on for hours instead of just the 10-15 minutes we get after each show.

So let’s continue here. I will start with the two most common questions that we get all the time

Q: Have you shown the film to Shell?

A: Yes we have. We posted a trailer and some earlier versions of the film to the website for some time, and within days we had hundreds of hits from ip numbers that belong to Shell. We assume that the film has been discussed within the company.

Also, Ifie was invited to show the film to the members of a “technical committee of reports” set up by the federal government to recommend a path forward towards peace in the Niger Delta. The film caused quite a stir and the members were provided with DVD copies. We have reasons to believe that they too have shown the film to Shell and asked for comments.

Shell has published an interview with the Shell Nigeria MD Basil Omiyi on shell.com. In this interview Mr Omiyi responds to one scene from the film, in which Agbo, a woman from Oruma, narrates how she and several other women who participated in cleaning up an oil spill suffered miscarriages as a result of inhaling fumes from the crude oil for a full week. (Unfortunately, both the interviewer and Omiyi have misunderstood Agbo’s story and thinks that she attributes the miscarriages to gas flaring)

The day after the premiere at IDFA Shell’s CEO Jeroen van der Veer received a copy of the DVD.

So yes, Shell has seen the film

Q: How has Shell responded?

A: Shell does not respond at all.

We have asked Shell representatives in Kolo Creek, Yenagoa, Port Harcourt, The Hague and Amsterdam to let us interview them or to comment on the film, but so far they have turned down every request.

In March I asked Shell press office in the Netherlands for an interview.  I was asked to send them the questions beforehand and I emailed three questions from the Ihwrekan, Oruma and Goi communities respectively. 

We are now trying to invite Shell to watch the film here at IDFA and to give their views on the issues or at least take the opportunity to talk to Ifie about it. We hope they will show up. Yesterday Ifie was told that they will call back today. 

Shell, if anyone of you happen to read this blog: my phone number in Amsterdam is 06 295 93881 and Ifie has 06 275 92913. We have reserved a free ticket for you to the remaining screenings at:
27 november 16:00 at Munt13
29 november 13:45 at Munt 12
30 november 14:30 at Munt 09

Here are the three questions that we asked in March