Whilst it may sound like the male counterpart to ‘College Girls Gone Wild’ and such the like, BIG BOYS GONE BANANAS! is the latest documentary from filmmaker Fredrick Gertten. The new film documents the fallout from his previous film, BANANAS!, and the corporate pressure Gertten found himself under. Described as ‘every bit a corporate thriller as any Hollywood fiction film, BIG BOYS GONE BANANAS will premiere at the Sheffield Documentary Film Festival and is set for UK release 21st September.
Check out the trailer and official press release below!
BIG BOYS GONE BANANAS! is not exactly a sequel but a companion piece to
Gertten’s previous film BANANAS!, the story of 12 Nicaraguan banana
plantation workers who sued Dole Foods over their use of potentially
harmful chemicals. Selected to screen at the Los Angeles Film Festival,
Gertten receives a message that the film has been pulled by the organisers
from competition. Next is a damning article in the Los Angeles Business
Journal and then a letter from Dole’s lawyers threatening legal action.
What follows is not a courtroom drama, but a deft examination of Dole’s
explicit tactics and also their subversive media schemes not only to have
the film banned but to blacken the reputation of everyone involved in the
film.
Gertten meticulously captures the whole process, from Dole’s attack on the
producers, to the media-manipulation and PR campaign, with interviews and
footage. But most of all this is a film about Fredrik Gertten and how
precarious his life as a documentary filmmaker became at the hands of a
large corporation; how his professional reputation and the status of his
company came under international scrutiny.
Tom Fordy is a writer and journalist. Originally from Bristol, he now lives in London. He is a former editor of The Hollywood News and Loaded magazine. He also contributes regularly to The Telegraph, Esquire Weekly and numerous others. Follow him @thetomfordy.
