Big Boys Gone Bananas!

What is a big corporation capable of doing in order to protect its brand? Recently, Swedish documentary filmmaker Fredrik Gertten experienced this first hand. His previous film BANANAS!* recounts the lawsuit that 12 Nicaraguan plantation workers successfully brought against the fruit giant Dole Food Company.

That film was selected for competition by the 2009 Los Angeles Film Festival. Then just before leaving Sweden to attend the Los Angeles world premiere of his film, Gertten gets a strange message: the festival has decided to remove BANANAS!* from competition.

Then, a scathing, controversial and misinformed article appears on the cover of the Los Angeles Business Journal about the film a week before the premiere. And subsequently, Gertten receives a letter from Dole's attorneys threatening legal action if the film is shown at this festival and to cease and desist.

What follows is an unparalleled story that Gertten captured on film