Bananas!* The Film Dole Doesn’t Want You to See
Published 23 Jun 2009, 9:51 am -
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Filed under Feature Stories
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The Los Angeles Film Festival tonight is screening a film that Dole Corporation does not want you to see. The world’s largest producer and marketer of fresh fruit and vegetables was accused in 2004 of causing sterility among its Nicaraguan banana workers. The lawsuit heard here in Los Angeles, led by LA-area personal injury lawyer Juan Dominguez and his partner Duane Miller, maintained that Dole knowingly exposed its workers to a harmful pesticide produced by Dow Chemical called Dibromochloropropane or DBCP. The film is simply titled “Bananas!*” and it focuses on the lawsuits, the lawyers involved, and the workers in question. In November 2007, an LA jury awarded $3.2 million in damages to half the plaintiffs in question, later adding another $2.5 million in punitive damages against Dole. The punitive damages were later reduced by Judge Victoria Chaney and now a document relying heavily on Dole’s own investigations, alleges a massive conspiracy between workers, attorneys, and judges in Nicaragua and lawyers in the US to win damages from Dole. The document alleges that all but one of the workers in question were paid and tutored by their attorneys to lie about working at the Dole plantation and being sterile from pesticide exposure. Judge Chaney has dismissed all the cases as a result. Dole representatives have issued “cease and desist” letters to the film’s director Fredrik Gertten and WG Films asking them to stop the movie from being screened.
GUEST: Fredrek Gertten, Director of Bananas!*
Bananas!* will screen Tuesday June 23rd at 9:15 pm at the Landmark Westside Pavilion, 10850 W Pico Blvd, Los Angeles, Ca 90064.
For more information, visit www.bananasthemovie.com.
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Media links | BANANAS!* on 29 Jun 2009 at 6:07 am: 1
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Bananas!* Exposes Dole’s Poisonous Practices - Zidee.com on 14 Aug 2009 at 10:49 pm: 2
[...] that the film is defamatory and false toward Dole Food. Bananas!* is definitely a movie that the Dole Corporation does not want you to see. It is presently schedule for wide release this [...]