Sweet Crude is a documentary film

Documentary film

Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...

 by Sandy Cioffi

Sandy Cioffi

Sandy Cioffi is a Seattle-based film and video artist. She is currently Director and Producer of Sweet Crude documentary film and has produced and/or directed the films Crocodile Tears, Terminal 187 and Just Us...

 about Nigeria

Nigeria

Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...

's oil-rich Niger Delta

Niger Delta

The Niger Delta, the delta of the Niger River in Nigeria, is a densely populated region sometimes called the Oil Rivers because it was once a major producer of palm oil...

. The film premiered in April 2009 at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival and has since screened at 30 film festivals around the world and has won numerous awards.

On April 12, 2008, members of the Sweet Crude filmmaking crew were detained by the Nigerian military Joint Task Force while traveling by boat in the Niger Delta. The crew was taken into custody and subsequently handed over to the Nigerian State Security Services. They were held for seven days without being charged and without access to legal counsel. They were released Friday, April 18.

From the Sweet Crude website: