Amigos y vecinos, te presento un hombre bien conocido – se llama Juan “Accidentes” Dominguez. Most notable as a result of his involvement as the attorney representing the case of twelve Nicaraguan banana workers against Dole Food. The ground-breaking legal battle surrounds Dole’s use of a banned pesticide that was known by the company to cause sterility.
During this landmark case, Tellez v. Dole Food Company Inc., Dominguez’s conduct was questioned due to alleged fraud in participation of faking of sterility test results and coaching banana-plantation workers along with Nicaraguan lawyers to lie about their sterility or whether they worked in Dole’s plantation.
On March 1, 2011, Juan Dominguez was cleared of any wrongdoing in the Dole case by the State Bar of California.
Juan “Accidentes” Dominguez was the subject of the film BANANAS!*. See the trailer below;
The BANANAS!* film was selected for competition by the Los Angeles Film Festival. Prior to screening the festival removes BANANAS!* from competition. Enter a scathing article in the Los Angeles Business Journal about the film, and Gertten subsequently receives a letter from Dole’s attorney threatening him with legal action.
What follows is an unparalleled thriller and second documentary, Big Boys Gone BANANAS!*, that has Director Fredrik Gertten capturing the entire process – from DOLE attacking the producers with a defamation lawsuit, bullying scaretactics, to media-control and PR-spin.
This personal film reveals precisely how a multinational will stop at nothing to get its way – freedom of speech is at stake. As Dole’s PR company puts it, “It is easier to cope with a bad conscience than a bad reputation”. Watch the trailer for Big Boys Gone BANANAS!* below;
More BANANAS!*
Dan Koeppel author of Banana: The Fate of the Fruit that Changed the World contributed liner notes to the US DVD release of BANANAS!*
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Congratulations Fredrik Gertten and crew, BIG BOYS GONE BANANAS!* North American premiere will be during the World Cinema Documentary Competition at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival!
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