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BIG MEN takes us inside the big money boardrooms, the excitement of new oil in Ghana, and the devastating effects of corruption in oil-rich Nigeria, as we eavesdrop on meetings about oil deals worth billions of dollars and watch armed militants preparing to strike. A fast-paced tour through the high-powered world of African oil deals.
Director: Rachel Boynton
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Support Friends of the Nation, a “socio-environmental advocacy, non-profit, non-governmental development oriented organization” in Ghana, that works to improve life for the average person.
Visit Oxfam International‘s website, an organization that actively works in both Ghana and Nigeria to improve living conditions. Learn of the many ways to help them in their work.
Learn more about the West’s dependence on oil and how that affects poor nations rich in oil, fueling corruption and greed. Oil Change International works to take the politics out of fossil fuel money.
Consider joining Amnesty International in their cause – to campaign against human rights abuses where natural resources are being mined, specifically in the oil, gas and mining industries.
Following a Los Angeles screening of Rachel Boynton’s documentary BIG MEN The Hollywood Reporter met up with Boynton and one of the film’s executive producers, Brad Pitt, to discuss how the project came together and what they hope people will take away from it.
Read the Q and A here.
“Created over millions of years by heat and pressure, petroleum is formed when living things die and decay and converted to carbon based metals.”
Learn more about the history of oil by watching this five part series, from the documentary The History of Oil, on Youtube.
Read the Humanosphere review of BIG MEN and interview withe the filmmaker here.
“Rachel is very persuasive,” Musselman tells me from Dallas, explaining why he allowed Boynton such an unusual degree of access after she made her pitch in the form of a PowerPoint presentation at Kosmos’s North Dallas headquarters. “She was passionate about the story. I thought it was a good story that just got better, frankly, as time went on.”
Rachel Boynton reveals the dramatic story of how she uncovered the truth about African oil corruption on The Daily Beast.
“If you are a Ghanaian, you tend to worry about Nigeria. Some would say we Ghanaians have enough on our own plates to keep us fully occupied with worry.(…) We are in the midst of the longest power crisis that our country has ever known and tempers are short all around as we try to cope with the outages that have become part of life now.”
Continue reading on BBC.
The shape of African economies is changing…
Find out more on The Economist.
In surveys of income inequality, Norway always ranks as one of the countries with the least differences of income between its citizens in the world. And that is what sets it apart from many other oil-producing countries.
How is this achieved? Find out here.
“Seven years ago, oil in commercial quantities was discovered off Ghana’s southern coast, more than 93 miles west of Sekondi-Takoradi. Attracted by the city’s existing harbour and airport, oil companies, service and exploration companies have flocked to set up headquarters, followed by tens of thousands of migrants looking for jobs.”
Continue readning on The Guardian.
