Masterclass with Fredrik Gertten: the dark side of PR and Big Boys Gone Bananas!*

This entry containers spoilers for the film Big Boys Gone Bananas!*

Filmmaker Fredrik Gertten took on the multinational corporation Dole Food Company and its PR army and won. Upon the release of Gertten’s blockbuster documentary Bananas!*, which recounts the law suit 12 Nicaraguan plantation workers brought against Dole, his tenacity and journalistic mettle were tested to their limits when he was hounded by Dole’s lawyers and PR firms.

Gertten’s follow-up film Big Boys Gone Bananas!* traces his journey from the LA film festival, which is pressurised by Dole to remove Bananas!* from competition, to Gertten and his colleagues’ battle for free speech, eventually gaining the support of the Swedish parliament.

Gertten will be at the Frontline Club to give a masterclass in filmmaking against the odds. Using clips from his films and drawing on his experience of becoming the story in his fight for journalistic freedoms, he will give a detailed account of his ordeal and answer questions about his films and filmmaking in general.

Moderated by award winning investigative journalist and author John Sweeney of the BBC’s Panorama.