so to get the film out would prove to be a journey full of obstacles. in the beginning or made two dozen and nine were ready to launch my film but it's. one morning a huge package from the us was delivered to our office. only a few days earlier we had launched the film's website announcing that we would have our world premiere in competition at the los angeles film festival. inside this package was a cease and desist letter from a law firm representing told food company claimed that facts in my film were based on a fraud and that the banana workers were lying. i

said what's going on here we're not out to get them. in the convinced that this was a misunderstanding. when they see this film everything will fall into place. when the cease and desist letter came in from gaul i was also mentioned and i guess in some way i was kind of flattered it was like wow ok nice i'm on the rich the radar for a dollar it's really nice to see but. my wife really sort of looked you know brought me back to reality and said you know this is quite serious you know we could lose the house we could lot of things could happen doe decided to go after everybody so they could stop the film and so in doing so they threatened everybody threatened me they threatened los angeles film festival by going to all. the major sponsors

including the l.a. times and i think it was important that we all had a united front. as we started to step towards you know the film screening at the festival. i wanted to tell the whole world what was going on but i didn't so when i was interviewed for a local swedish t.v. news i did not give the reporter the full story i didn't tell her about the letters from dawn that we might not be able to show our film. i was doing a segment on this film that was about to compete at the l.a. festival. all sound a few days later i received a long letter an e-mail from our agency in washington to be here to washington that is stored on. the documentary was based on false accusations and lies my initial reaction was here i was scared to think it made me very uncomfortable i mean this was a tiny segment aired by a local news station how did they find it i'll be watching every move i contacted

the agency and that put me in tears who had those vice president i have made it very clear to this producer and. given that there are. two absolute basis on which they built this trial and they're going forward with it they want they're going to get sued too are going to be exposed to chemical damages and they'll still remember when i asked him what exactly is faked. or what lies are you referring to that. he tried to steer me just went on and on that made me angry the film is based on a sham that's the point but have you seen this really sham or told you know. we didn't tell anybody. to film. that created the first headline.

front page. pages. this is. easy this this is. what. the writer has seen. i wanted to talk about pesticide use and its impact on. successfully shifted the focus away. to appear. in the media. cuban immigrant chasing. a beloved american corporation. swedish filmmaker is making this

crook into a hero. is afraid. that . it was such an insult who worked so hard to make this movie. to me the skin grew in the films and. i want to say yeah. we feel like. it's a very silly sensible. so we. you know all very well it's unclear to us there's anything. other than.

sit by joel geyser our early trying to be addressed. and especially likely to ask you. guys los angeles they're going to serve you with us are obvious surprise if a doctor gets. to be successful in court the same week to judge concluded the. case probably had committed fraud the conclusion was based on testimonies from witnesses stories. so what happened to the central premise that your documentary that's just about to be released turns out to be a fraud. that. they're basically created in and. this sort of supportive people getting their piece of that. so have you finally seen the documentary and i have to admit i

did not. and could not defend themselves publicly instead the journalist attacked me and my film with one question why don't you change your film. is found to be a fraud. i told them that this was still an illegal fight and that i didn't believe decent usage they're attacking you as a filmmaker they're attacking the film they're. everything became personal it wasn't just about the film is really going after you. and if you look back everything. was actually they moved it off of them because they couldn't get after him. the film because. to them is damaging because you know the c.e.o. from then had you know admitted his guilt right there you know in court did it occur to you and mr rennes all the best guy to use d.c.p.

until you were sure your workers wouldn't be affected just general waiting for the evidence to pile up. the first tool pass but you still don't know if our film will be screened at all. or. the festival board calls us to an urgent crisis when they had received new letters from don't. assume they're not even on a plane. and they make it very clear to us they will no longer defend my from. the call to my office disgrace. we just came out of a meeting. just the bottom line. it's not really finished but.

cable it's so hard to risk their own organization the fessor game up with different options but the options are never going to be in your favor you know the options were i mean i was in the room of the options where they were going to show up next year when you can get distribution or why don't we just show clips and we can do a discussion around it but all along that was going to do anything for your for your show and then also we felt as you know on the publicity side all that said to dole was yes you're right so i'm just going to show clips so that i don't get in trouble. the festool keeps changing the conditions we have to accept that the film has been taken out of competition another legal disclaimer defending those few of those films. it's going to be read before. if you don't accept these terms there will be no world premiere . i've got to find

a disclaimer text in my hand just to say i arrived to the theater festival has given in to the pressure from don't. seen that the banana workers are liars i tried not to read it because i knew i would get. so basically if you say i'll say it is a microcosm coming there in the watch is this. the vice president michael connor and his lawyers are right these are the guys who have been putting pressure on us for over six weeks now to pull the film.

more than four hundred cities around the globe are hosting mass rallies for fairness justice and freedom. follow million mask march on our t.v. and r t dot com. this it will. be taken place without the full consent of the americans and what we've. got. go ahead let's not forget that the arab spring is a crisis moment in international politics it is the moment in which you come and put the genie back in the baltic because the people on the ground in those

countries for example in egypt there is a nationalist swing towards. do we really think that sisi is going to be. without the people rising up again. and do you think your argument about turkey banged out of prodigious examples of a muslim democracy that was able to separate that it's religion from its economy still can be applied to these day that's a fair point what i spoke about in the book was how ways gokey head down from being accompanied by a stick he said make you to go away with hyperinflation and very valid died good old they tried so achieved so much economic success and i think that was great but the problem there is of course they do one day his attitude has changed he now has become much more to talk to. us dollar it goes any criticism and more bad annoyed.

some of the sixteen percent imports came from. the european union is ironically taking fish from some of the poorest nations on earth so this is a very serious and very urgent problem that needs immediate international action. with the territorial waters and the fish they load the fish on to the ships and leave for europe. to day illegal fishing just taking the bread out of our mouths.

ok great thank you all i'm so sorry like that contingent there getting us going here. welcome to the fifteenth annual los angeles film festival presented by the los angeles times i'm don hudson executive director of film independent and i also looking to tonight screening and case study of bananas the screen is presented by film independent film and it is los angeles film festival and frederick the director and i want to introduce to you right now thank you. and i want to thank you first so. i want you to read the first you want to

introduce the film yes i will but i want you to read this first i was i mean. you know. this was all i was told all right it was actually one of the most shocking things i've ever seen this sort of putting a documentary into a special ghetto of its own declassifying it and then. actually feeling like there was surveillance on me in the audience as we lined up and were forced to read a document that disavowed this thing and i actually felt completely ashamed for the entire los angeles movie industry and the festival i. it was beyond belief to think think that that could be done to to a participant in a film festival before you watch this film you need to know that serious questions have been raised about its credibility. the judge specifically mentions in her ruling that the witnesses you will see in the film tonight from the trial lied under oath presented false employment records and presented fraudulent evidence of

sterility none of this is reflected in the film you are about to see as a result there seems to be little question that the version of reality the film portrays does not match the reality that emerged in the courtroom. we are not eager to be sued that is why we are showing this film out of competition as a case study to eliminate a timely exploration of what makes and doesn't make a responsible documentary the language was basically saying we're going to show this film as a test case we don't believe it's true we don't believe this filmmaker. and so just be warned that what you're about to see is a bunch of crap why would they show a film that's a bunch of crap and all it's. it was just it was weird let me introduce the director again frederick thank

. everybody. sorry for all this waiting it's been the very very special. time this. i have never experienced anything like this before in my life i believe in democracy and i believe in the free word and i believe that there was a balance in the side to between different voices and i think those are all to be room for independent films and i'm really happy to talk to all of you off to the film about the complexity of life and filmmaking and truth i mean all truth in the court but maybe also in filmmaking. lean back have a nice time thank you. thank. you.

what was kind of sad with the whole disclaimer thing it was really said it was exactly what dole wanted to do don't want to have a divide division between film independent and use a filmmaker you know if felt like the screenings at the festival coupled with the disclaimer and the panel discussion afterwards of colleagues and a lawyer it felt like they were punishing you and what i saw those really like like it was almost like a stage like in effect for show just to make sure that they distance themselves anough from you so that we don't couldn't come out and that just felt really really strange at that that they would do that because allison you became the pariah in the room not dull. the festival was nearly over and still no loss but all this pressure just being scouted. as i was preparing to leave

los angeles i heard that goal had served the court order on the festival demanding all emails contracts recordings film footage relating to my movie. it seems like this is not over yet. i came back to sweden early july i was totally exhausted after the turmoil in l.a. . so i was actually sitting at home one night on the internet looking for a whole day trips with my kids and i received a call from los angeles it's a journalist who wants to comment on a lawsuit being brought against me from dold dole foods is suing us. filmmaker for wanting to show a fraudulent documentary slamming the company. based filmmaker frederick is

being sued by a dollar the company claims the film is a fraud. we are suing. because we. produce the riches are clearly you know this much are you against the company and against our employees. it's three different lawsuits they're seeing me frederick and. the way they doing this what exactly is their strategy are we really the. us. or do they have a hidden agenda i mean. we've become a part of our own film. trays a trial and now the same forces are directed against us. have you considered accommodating them in any way with the film there is nothing to accommodate their demands include stopping the film shutting down the websites i won't discuss this issue in public in the future. shoulders we worked around the clock twenty four

seventh's and we have no time to engage in new film projects. luckily we have a us insurance policy covering us against lawsuits and now we have the best lawyer working for us your film is wrapped up into a much. for their cause is to get rid of billions of dollars. using poisonous chemicals so this is a cheap investment for that they are. very expensive. they're going to do but it's an investment in a bigger picture. yeah it's it's just distressing i mean it's distressing and yeah i mean it is. this is kind of the emotional roller coaster because i mean most of the time i feel quite good but it's. this of course extremely tiring you have

this model that that's the point and that's that's what they want to get trying to zap your confidence they're trying to make you cautious in what you say they're trying to essentially you and others to say you know what it's not worth it to go after these corporations is if i touch these hot potato issues on it be on the. soft so i don't feel that way in. the book. i worked as a foreign correspondent earlier on like in korea or chile or south africa and i always teamed up with american journalists and i have had respect of them but i kept wondering why did they keep telling the story from dole's perspective why didn't they dig deeper. the thing that was most surprising about the media coverage

of the suit that came out against you was how easily you were a fraud and doll was wrong and the banana company was fighting for justice and. no reporter should ever take that at face value we have a astounding lack of curiosity on the part of the journalism community in the us. a lack of skepticism these journalists failed in their job they took a press release and reprinted it basically they didn't do any due diligence and that is even more shameful than the film festival disavowing you we have a media that is corrupted by power mostly by corporate power you have corporate ownership from the top you have corporate advertising coming in from the side we have a media that is where advertising and money and corporate influence is really the mother's milk. the reality is that the media is much more

willing to take down stories when a company comes to them and say listen. don't write that story now because you're going to look stupid and we will go on with a massive denial and we'll go all to your media organization as well i know all the global corporations in the us who have threatened to pull advertising from the wall street journal the new york times because they don't like the editorial coverage so there isn't as much investment in investigative journalism as there was in the past journalism itself is under threat. spending a lot of money on this story they have an american p.r. company contacting journalists around the world to broker is one of the prominent public relations firms in washington they're located in the heart of downtown just

about a block from the white house it's really hard to know what your parole tour is up to or who they even work for because they're not obligated to disclose any of that information. proctor used to work for the coalition provisional authority in iraq which the united states government set up shortly after the invasion that overthrew saddam hussein so he would have been involved in frequent strategy meetings about how to sell the iraq war and part of selling that war would have also been to attack the critics and to make the critics look bad and if you look at the roster of any of the top while being in public relation firms in town they're filled with former members of congress for murder ministration officials former cia officials increasingly journalists are going the same route.

and. we now occupy an era of extreme reputation anxiety among leading companies around the world because they're very aware that corporate reputation which they may have built over fifty years or so can be shredded in a matter of minutes so when a company feels that it's on the potential attack you try and divert attention from the real story or you have a snow dump all of good alternative information so they will go out there and say listen we've got this story about reputations being on the files by this disreputable swedish filmmaker acting for a lawyer who we think is fraudulent we you can have this exclusively we'll give you all the background information and you plonk the story so it's fredericks

a bad guy if i can get that narrative into the newspapers first to make it sticky and appeal to people in a way that they'll want to tell their friends then that's the story that will go out. there was a swedish documentary maker who went to nicaragua he did a documentary on how pesticides of damage the health of workers there the problem was that was not the case these workers were recruited by by a lawyer down there who wanted to make a case he wanted to to he had a beef against dole basically and so he recruited a bunch of nicaraguan banana harvesters to lie and say that their health was damaged the swedish filmmaker made the documentary. and he didn't find out it was a fraud until the film was done this guy still wants to show the film because he went through the process of making that i can't really even r.t.o. . she turned his lover into an amazon. that had been my dream.

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