Here’s director Sandy Cioffi’s take on some of the themes that emerged during the filming of Sweet Crude.

On third-party monitored peace talks and how they could help avert war and bring reform with accountability to the Niger Delta.

What the militants will stand down for in order to avoid imminent tragedy is a call for peace talks monitored by a neutral third party to give them teeth. Members of MEND (Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta) told me this. We met over three days in August 2006, discussing the terms they were after and my terms to be willing to go back to America and advocate for a group of militants. Coming to such a peace table would give these young men a political voice, and allow them to move from a militant group to a political group. Their greatest hope is just that, but currently the only kinds of statements people pay attention to are violent acts. Met with political will, they will interact articulately and bravely. I know them and believe this is true. Telling their story could do wonders for awareness and could catalyze international advocacy and pressure for these talks.

On how Sweet Crude became more than a movie.

I first went to the Niger Delta to film the building of a library in a small village, to be shared between previously warring tribes. By the end of the first hour, I had a more-than-meets-the-eye intuition and it turned out to be true. We had landed in the headquarters of a militancy that was just being born. By the end of the first week, I was completely engaged by the village children and the mothers who carry enormous family responsibility. I was afraid for the pending violence. Stunned by the complexity of the situation. By the end of that trip, I knew I had to go back. I returned to make a documentary. We gained access to all the major stakeholders. And somehow were in the right place at the right time to be called on as messengers. We have gone to oil company corporate responsibility directors, contacted our elected representatives, begged the media to pay attention to what we clearly see as urgent. We are beginning to see it working. A voice through the media would invite millions to call for change – a call the world desperately needs to hear and act on.

On students turned militant, educational kidnappings and the human face of armed resistance.

In January, 2006, they became known as MEND. I knew them as students-turned-militants. And sons. And big brothers to their “younger ones.” I had met them a few months before they started taking oil workers hostage. I went back to film a documentary and spent a month learning more about them. These militants articulate very clearly what they won’t stand for anymore, and what they’re asking for is justified. Yet, they’re still committing violent acts; they’re still militants. Typically, they do not harm their hostages. They feed them well. And they educate them about the plight of the Niger Delta people. About their ruined land and water in the midst of tremendous wealth that’s pumped out of the region and into the hands of others. They essentially hold school on why they’re kidnapping these people, and former hostages have been known to remark on the good treatment they received when in the camp. The young men of MEND need a vehicle to tell their story and show their humanity – so the world can understand the complexity of their struggle and help them find a way out.

On the powerful women of the Niger Delta – their struggle, history of non-violent protest, despair over the lack of change and resulting support of militancy.

I went into the Niger Delta as a filmmaker assuming the women there favored non-violence. I was wrong. The same women who organized the last notable non-violent resistance – by taking over the oil platforms in 2002 and demanding change to benefit their families – are now saying they’ve had enough. Their sons are taking up arms and they’re not begging them not to. It’s a desperate time that calls for desperate measures. It seems like the only way to be heard. They do not have clean water, electricity or hospitals. They’re peaceful people who are being done an injustice that’s violent in its magnitude. They’re fisher people who can barely scratch out a living in polluted waters – though they paddle their dugout canoes twice a day. These women would give up what little they have for their children to get schooling because they know education is the best hope for the future. But village schools are rare and text books rarer. We need to shine a spotlight on the courage and struggle of the women of the Niger Delta and their families – and invite the world to support them in advocating for change.