''Bananas!*'' is a 2009 Swedish documentary directed by

Fredrik Gertten Carl Fredrik (von) Gertten (born 3 April 1956 in Malmö) is a Swedish filmmaker, producer and journalist. In 2017, he was appointed as an honorary doctor at Malmö University. He is a brother to the documentary filmmaker Magnus Gertten. In 1994, ...

about a conflict between the

Dole Food Company Dole plc (previously named Dole Food Company, Standard Fruit Company) is an Irish agricultural multinational corporation headquartered in Dublin, Ireland. The company is among the world's largest producers of fruit and vegetables, operating wit ...

and

banana plantation A banana plantation is a commercial agricultural facility found in tropical climates where bananas are grown. Geographic distribution Banana plants may grow with varying degrees of success in diverse climatic conditions, but commercial banana p ...

workers in

Nicaragua Nicaragua (; ), officially the Republic of Nicaragua (), is the largest country in Central America, bordered by Honduras to the north, the Caribbean to the east, Costa Rica to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Managua is the cou ...

over alleged cases of sterility caused by the

pesticide Pesticides are substances that are meant to control pests. This includes herbicide, insecticide, nematicide, molluscicide, piscicide, avicide, rodenticide, bactericide, insect repellent, animal repellent, microbicide, fungicide, and lampri ...

DBCP. The film was criticized by Dole for containing "patent falsehoods". After a screening at the

Los Angeles Film Festival The LA Film Festival was an annual film festival that was held in Los Angeles, California, and usually took place in June. It showcased independent, international, feature, documentary and short films, as well as web series, music videos, episod ...

in June 2009, Gertten was sued for

defamation Defamation is the act of communicating to a third party false statements about a person, place or thing that results in damage to its reputation. It can be spoken (slander) or written (libel). It constitutes a tort or a crime. The legal defini ...

by Dole on 8 July. The lawsuit was preceded by threats of legal action from Dole aimed against the LA Film Festival, which resulted in sponsors pulling support and the film being removed from competition. Dole dropped their lawsuit against Fredrik Gertten and ''Bananas!*'' on 15 October 2009. In September 2009, the Swedish parliament members Mats Johansson ( M) and Luciano Astudillo ( S) took the initiative of displaying the movie in the

Parliament of Sweden The Riksdag (, ; also sv, riksdagen or ''Sveriges riksdag'' ) is the legislature and the supreme decision-making body of Sweden. Since 1971, the Riksdag has been a unicameral legislature with 349 members (), elected proportionally and se ...

, this being its premiere in Sweden. In late 2010 a court in Los Angeles decided in favor of the movie crew, making it possible to release the film in the US. A judge awarded the filmmakers nearly $200,000 in fees and costs. In 2011, Gertten directed the film ''

Big Boys Gone Bananas!* ''Big Boys Gone Bananas!*'' is a 2011 documentary film, directed by Fredrik Gertten. The film is about how Gertten's film company was sued by Dole for the 2009 documentary film ''Bananas!*''. This lawsuit is a type of case known as a strategic l ...

'' about how the company was sued by Dole.

Cast

* Byron Rosales Romero * Juan J. Dominguez * Duane Miller * Rick McKnight * David Delorenzo * Mercedes Del Carmen Romero

References

External links

* * * * ;News
''Dole sues 'Bananas!' filmmaker, alleges defamation''
''

Yahoo News Yahoo! News is a news website that originated as an internet-based news aggregator by Yahoo!. The site was created by a Yahoo! software engineer named Brad Clawsie in August 1996. Articles originally came from news services such as the Associate ...

''. 9 July 2009.
''Dole Sues ''Bananas!'' Filmmaker''
''

Businessweek ''Bloomberg Businessweek'', previously known as ''BusinessWeek'', is an American weekly business magazine published fifty times a year. Since 2009, the magazine is owned by New York City-based Bloomberg L.P. The magazine debuted in New York City ...

''. 9 July 2009.
''Dole sues "Bananas" documentary maker''
''

Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters Corporation. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency was estab ...

''. 8 July 2009.
''Bananjätte stämmer svensk filmare''
''

Dagens Nyheter ''Dagens Nyheter'' (, ), abbreviated ''DN'', is a daily newspaper in Sweden. It is published in Stockholm and aspires to full national and international coverage, and is widely considered Sweden's newspaper of record. History and profile ''Da ...

''. 9 July 2009.
''Dole drar tillbaka stämningen mot "Bananas!*"''
''

''. 15 October 2009. {{DEFAULTSORT:Bananas 2009 films Documentary films about agriculture Bananas in popular culture Banana production Dole plc Swedish documentary films 2009 documentary films 2000s English-language films 2000s Swedish films English-language Swedish films

Cast

See also

References

External links