The DVD comes in an eco-friendly Dogwoof DVD sleeve and contains an exclusive interview with director Fredrik Gertten, trailers and the short film Pictures from a Banana Plantation.

Find out just what Dole wanted to repress by getting hold of one of the most talked about documentary films of recent years on DVD today.

UK Fans: Order now in the Dogwoof shop »

Words from the jury:
"A surprisingly well told story of killer capitalism told as a haunting legal thriller and a gripping court room drama. A gripping drama of poor workers in Nicaragua that try to get justice in THE court rooms of Los Angeles against powerful multinationals. A suspenseful saga of David and Goliath in a world where justice does not always come to those who need or deserve it."

The prize was shared with The Peddler by the Argentineans Eduardo de la Serna, Lucas Marcheggiano and Adriana Yurcovich.

1st prize was awarded Garbage Dreams by Egyptian director Mai Iskander. Other films in the category included Space Tourists by Oscar nominated directior Christian Frei and Seed Warriors by Mirjam von Arx.

Rodοs International Films + Visual Arts Festival Ecofilms, invites the participation of documentaries, shorts and features with environmental and ecology themes, encouraging conservation issues and issues related with the natural, the human and the built environment. Prizes are awarded to the films for their innovative approach in conservation issues for their daring proposal in subject matter and their artistic qualities overall.

Dole dropped their lawsuit against BANANAS!* in October 2009, but there were still issues to resolve. We pointed out that even though Dole had dropped the lawsuit, we were still entitled to a ruling on our Anti-SLAPP motion and to an award of the legal fees incurred in defending against Dole’s action.

The hearing on these matters have been constantly rescheduled, and no less than five different Judges have been assigned to the case in the year that it has been pending. The first four judges either recused themselves or were taken off the case for various reasons, but since November 18 2009, Judge Dau has been the judge in the matter.

On December 22, 2009, we filed a separate motion setting forth the attorneys’ fees that we seek to recover. Thus, the Anti-SLAPP motion and the motion for fees were set for hearing on January 14, 2010. Dole requested that this date be moved and we agreed to move the hearing to January 28, 2010. A long series of court-imposed delays then followed. The January hearing was first postponed to March – and then to June.

On June 13, Dole requested to postpone the hearing to July 14, 2010, saying that they wanted to wait until after the hearings were completed in the Tellez matter. We refused to stipulate on the grounds that the Tellez hearings are irrelevant to our motions and we had waited far too long for a ruling as it was. Dole brought a motion to move the date despite our objections and suggested July 14, but at the hearing on the motion, Judge Dau indicated he was “not prepared to rule on the matter” and instead suggested August 19.

So here we are after countless delays and weird circumstances. The Anti-SLAPP statute specifically states that a hearing on an Anti-SLAPP motion should be heard no later than 30 days from filing - yet it has been nine months since the motion was filed. Beyond that - the Los Angeles Superior Court rules state that the court should try to dispose of an entire case within one year from the date of its filing - yet by the time the hearing is held, the action will have been pending for a year and two months. This delay is, of course, all in favor to Dole, who always tries to either postpone their court hearings or shift the debate away from themselves and on to irrelevant issues. This time, their main strategy seems to be postponing the case long enough to make the judge feel that the case has gone cold. We will of course not allow this to happen.

Related articles:

• Q&A with Fredrik Gertten about facing Dole in court
• The return to Los Angeles - court hearing and special screening

The special screening of BANANAS!* will take place at the Downtown Independent Theatre on Wednesday, June 23, 2010 at 7PM and 9PM.  The theatre is located on 251 Main Street in downtown Los Angeles, CA 90012.

Press release:

LOS ANGELES, CA - The infamous documentary BANANAS!* comes back to Los Angeles for a one night theatrical screening on the eve of the trial between Dole Food Company and filmmaker Fredrik Gertten. Both filmmaker Gertten and his attorney Lincoln Bandlow will be in attendance at the screening to discuss the film following each screening on June 23 in downtown Los Angeles.

After last year’s highly controversial screening at the Los Angeles Film Festival amid threats of lawsuits, Dole Food Company sued director Gertten and his production company WG Film. However, Dole withdrew the lawsuit after Gertten’s home country, Sweden and its Parliament, signed a petition demanding Dole to withdraw the lawsuit on the basis of freedom of speech. Next Thursday, June 24, following the Los Angeles screening, Gertten will have his day in court against Dole, as he filed a SLAPP motion.

"One year later after the turmoil at last year’s LA Film Festival, I am glad that the public can see the film that Dole Food Company didn’t want anyone to see," said filmmaker Gertten. "We are pleased that our US distributor Oscilloscope Laboratories is screening this film for the public at this time before the DVD comes out, so that everyone can see for themselves. With Chevron coming on down on my fellow filmmaker Joe Berlinger for his film CRUDE and Dole suing us for BANANAS!*, it’s become even more difficult for documentary filmmakers to defend ourselves and continue to make nonfiction stories about those who have been wronged. Despite all of Dole’s effort to halt our film, to date we have screened at over 50 festivals worldwide and sold the film to over 10 countries for television and theatrical exhibition."

This special screening of BANANAS!* takes place on Wednesday, June 23, 2010 at 7PM and 9PM at the Downtown Independent Theatre located at 251 Main Street in downtown Los Angeles, CA 90012.

The film has screened with critical acclaim in theaters and on television in Sweden, France, England, and Germany and other countries. BANANAS!* is a multi-layered courtroom drama delving into the global politics of food, the dynamics of First and Third world nations, and ultimately, human rights at the basest of levels.

Directed by investigative journalist Fredrik Gertten, BANANAS!* focuses on a landmark and highly controversial legal case pitting a dozen Nicaraguan plantation workers against Dole Food Corporation and its alleged use of a banned pesticide with a probable link to generations of sterilized workers. Juan "Accidentes" Dominguez, a Los Angeles-based personal injury attorney, leads the charge in this classic David vs. Goliath story at times both infuriating and inspirational of workers, their families as well as the culture of global, multinational business. Cameras inside the court and interviews with Dominguez and the plaintiffs take the audience directly to the story.

Experts and companies all over the world have followed this case. If Dominguez is successful, it could rock the economic foundations of Dole and Dow, and would open the US courts to other global victims of US-based multinationals. It would represent a new day in international justice, and there are further cases of a similar nature coming up next in many jurisdictions.

For more information on the screening go to:
Downtown Independent’s website »

Background on the lawsuit againt BANANAS!*:
BANANAS!* background » (1 page PDF)
BANANAS!* under fire - a timeline » (full timeline)

For press enquiries, please contact:

David Magdael & Associates
Winston Emano
Phone: +01 213 624 7827
wemano@tcdm-associates.com

Olá, amigos do BANANAS!*

Bart here, back in Canada after a great experience at FICA Environmental Film Festival in Goiás, Brazil - where we won the Audience Award for favourite film.

The city of Goiás (officially Goiás Velho) is a wonderful spot, about 4 hours west from the capital of Brasilia. It’s incredibly hot in June (at least for Swedes and Canadians), somewhere around 35 degrees during the day but almost zero humidity - and about 500m above sea level.

Once the capital of the state, it’s now a UNESCO world heritage site and an example of the old colonial cities of Brazil.

You wouldn’t expect a film festival to take over such a town, but that’s exactly what it did - the whole region came out to take in the films, discussions, and cultural events organized by our wonderful hosts at the festival office.

Screenings were held in 3-hour blocks, and we screened at 2pm on Thursday to a busy theatre. School kids came in and there was a bit of buzzing and chatting during the screening…great that there was a lot of access to these films, but I must admit the noise made me anxious that the general audience wasn’t going to follow the important details of the film.

I guess I shouldn’t have worried - from the 28 films in official competition (all lengths and genres, including Oscar®-winner The Cove), the audience chose us as best film. Very flattering, and a great burst of energy for our production team after dealing with lawsuits, misinformed US media articles and a halted release strategy. Most importantly, it keeps the spotlight on the conditions of the workers in Chinandega. The win is already reported in the Nicaraguan press.

Audience Awards are always the best award to win. They rarely come with money attached (and with WG Film’s court costs, money could have helped!) - but they do what no other award can - they show that the film really struck a chord with the general viewership.

Documentarians work in alone or in small groups, and we always appreciate honest feedback. Getting a statement like this from the heartland of the largest country in Latin America is proof that the film is doing its job - and we hope this is a good step toward larger exposure in the central and southern hemisphere.

Finally, a big shout-out to our editor Jesper Osmund, who not only was part of the BANANAS!* win - he was also editor of Jakob Gottschau and Øyvind Hesselager’s Bringing Life To Space, which won the award for Best Series. Congrats J-man!

Tchau and obrigado to all,

Bart

DBCP is a chemical formerly used in pesticides, the same chemical under scope in the recent banana pesticide trials. In 2007, Dole was sentenced to pay punitive damages to six workers claiming to have been sterilized by DBCP (this is the case featured in the film BANANAS!*).

Apparently, Dole is paying Google to be on top of the search results when users are trying to find information about the trials and DBCP.

However, if you do a search on the term “Fredrik Gertten”, the director of BANANAS!*, you get the same results. This probably means that Dole is paying for the keywords “Fredrik Gertten”. This also means every time someone writes something (a word is enough) about Gertten and BANANAS!*, the same link appears in the “ads by Google” space included on thousands of websites.

How does it work?
Dole is using an automated ad system called AdSense. If you want to use the system on your site, you reserve some space for Google, and the system recognizes keywords in the content of your site and places ads that match your content. Ideally, an article about bananas has ads about bananas.

On the other end, if you want to sell bananas, you use a service called AdWords. You invest in the word "bananas", and if that word appears in a text online, there is a chance your ad pops up. To set this up, you need to tell Google you’d like to spend a certain sum of money on your keyword, let’s say a $100. This sum is now your investment budget. As soon as someone clicks on your ad, a small amount of this budget is used. The more money you invest in your ad words, the more often they show. In the end, the site owner gets paid by Google for providing the ad space.

So where do you end up if you click on Dole’s ad?
It’s always the same link, an ad called Dole DBCP Facts, a page that doesn’t really contain any facts about the pesticide DBCP. Instead, it’s a list of Dole’s court documents related to the banana pesticide cases and the lawsuit against BANANAS!*. Sure, this is a nice little initiative in corporate transparency, but there is one big problem: where are all responses to Dole’s documents? We replied to every single cease-and-desist-letter they sent to us that are listed there. 

A few examples of where you might find Dole’s ad:
BANANAS!* trailer on vimeo »
BANANAS!* profile on IMDB »
Los Angeles Times article about BANANAS!* »

Read more
Bananas about "Bananas!*"
Pidde Andersson, Xomba.com
June 13, 2010

Google går bananas (in Swedish)
Andreas Ekström, Sydsvenskan
May 29, 2010

Smutskastningen kan börja (in Swedish)
Andreas Ekström, Journalisten.se
May 26, 2010

Related articles on this site:
When Fredrik Gertten held a speech at the LA premiere, he mentioned the sponsored links. Watch the speech here »

The BANANAS!* lawsuit »
(All documents related to the lawsuit against BANANAS!*)

The letters from Dole »
(The cease-and-desist letters preceding the lawsuit)

In the meantime, don’t miss the UK cinema screenings:

Edinburgh Filmhouse
Edinburgh, June 7-10

Cardiff Chapter Cinema
Canton, June 28 - July 1

Read more at the Dogwoof website »

But while Dole continues to hide behind the protective order, alternative voices are starting to pop up. These voices tell the story of a dirty Dole and a biased judge. And very soon, a new American lawyer will face Dole in court and ask them to explain.

Last spring, anonymous witnesses stated that several plaintiffs’ in two upcoming DBCP cases in the LA Superior Court had never worked on banana farms. Dole also claimed that this fraud involved all Nicaraguan DBCP cases, including the Tellez case back in 2007, where Dole was sentenced to pay compensatory and punitive damages to six workers (this is the case featured in the film BANANAS!*). In May 2009, Judge Chaney threw out the two upcoming cases and issued a protective order on the anonymous witnesses making it impossible to cross-examine their stories.

Since then, Dole has been hiding behind the protective order and has succeeded in spreading their version of the story worldwide, with no contradictions or opposing views. But a new plaintiffs’ lawyer in the Tellez case has filed a motion which seriously contests Dole’s allegations of fraud. The new lawyer, Steve Condie, writes that Chaney’s dismissal of all upcoming DBCP cases was not only unfair, but also a distraction from the genuine claim involving Dole’s use of DBCP. In the motion, Condie writes that at least four of the anonymous “John Doe” witnesses were paid by Dole and that four more had their own personal motives to slander American lawyers involved in DBCP litigation in Nicaragua. And since the witnesses were anonymous, it’s practically impossible to double check their statements, which is unfair. Court hearings will be held in Los Angeles this summer, dates will be announced soon. Download the full motion »

Beside from the upcoming court hearings, several alternative stories are starting to pop up. These stories provide a fresh wind by giving a Nicaraguan view of the events. El Nuevo Diario have published two stories, both pointing to the conclusion that Dole bribed witnesses to tell a story that doesn’t add up.

The first article starts off during a press conference in Managua on May 14, where seven former banana workers said Dole bribed or tricked them to witness against the affected plaintiffs’. One of the workers said that a Dole agent promised him an American VISA, $50,000, a job and housing in the US in exchange for declaring against one of the pesticide victims. He refused, but after being intimidated and threatened to be charged for criminal activities, he agreed to give a declaration, but only received 6,500 cordobas in exchange (approx $430). Read the original article here, or download an English translation here.

Associated Press also reported from the press conference, and one of the workers said in an interview that Dole offered him money to testify:
“What they wanted was for me to testify that the tests had been altered, that they had not worked on the banana plantation, and that for saying what they wanted, they would give me $225,000. I agreed to lie because they know that we are poor and know how to use you. They took me to Costa Rica and there I said everything they asked of me. They tricked me, they tricked all of us. They gave me just $300, that’s it.”

Lawyer Scott Edelman of Dole said in response that bribing of witnesses is “categorically false” and that he could not confirm if the workers on the Managua conference were in fact the anonymous “John Doe” witnesses, since the judge sealed their identities.

Another El Nueva Diario article shows that Dole fails to prove that “a secret meeting” took place where Nicaraguan judges, American lawyers and lab technicians met to manufacture evidence. The location can not be pinpointed, none of the alleged participants say they were there, passport stamps are missing and the witnesses’ stories about the length of the meeting does not match.

The article also criticizes Judge Chaney for being biased. During the court hearings in May 2009, she talked about how the judicial system in Nicaragua is corrupt, and that Nicaraguans can only live “in their own ecosystem”. Despite this criticism with the conclusion that no evidence coming from Nicaragua can be trusted, she completely trusts Dole’s evidence from Nicaragua. Read the original article here, or read an English translation by Google here.

Stay tuned for the LA Court hearings this summer and please share the links!

“La Dole nos sobornó para declarar contra víctimas del Nemagón”
(Link to El Nuevo Diario)
By: Roger Olivas
May 10, 2010
Full English translation can be found here

Conspiración Dole, la fábrica infame de “evidencias”
(Link to El Nuevo Diario)
By: Roger Olivas
May 12, 2010
English translation by Google translate can be found here

Nicaraguan banana workers deny they conspired in fraud to win pesticides case against Dole
(Link to Washington Examiner)
By: Marcus Aleman, Associated Press
May 14, 2010

Related articles on this site
Dole’s evidence in fraud case contested
February 13, 2010

Pesticide lawsuits – a DBCP overview
May 5, 2009

What is Nemagon?
May 5, 2009

The Independent (17/4/10)

The Guardian (16/4/10)
"It seems that US corporations may be reaping a whirlwind of litigation from developing-world communities in Latin America for years to come, and like the cigarette companies, they will fight it every step of the way. What a prospect."

The Evening Standard (16/4/10)
"Dole lost and is now appealing and seems to be suing almost everyone in sight. It may be a never-ending story - but I know whose side I’m on."

View London (16/4/10)
"This is a well made eco-doc that’s gripping, rage-inducing, heart-breaking and heart-warming but also frustrating in equal measure. Worth seeing."

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