Thread: Fraud in Dole Banana Worker Case Derails Documentary

Jun 19, 6:57 PM EDT

Documentary draws ire of Dole after plot thickens
By LINDA DEUTSCH
AP Special Correspondent

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- A documentary on Nicaraguan banana workers who claimed they became sterile from pesticides is set for its American premiere on Saturday - unless a threatened lawsuit stops the show.

Swedish filmmaker Fredrik Gertten's film "Bananas!" might now be more appropriately punctuated with a question mark after a judge declared its star, a Los Angeles lawyer, a fraud for recruiting plaintiffs to lie.

Attorney Juan J. Dominguez previously won a $1.5 million award for the purported workers before being discredited by Superior Court Judge Victoria Chaney as the engineer of a massive scheme targeting Dole Food Co. in cases in the U.S. and Central America. The cases sought more than $40 billion in damages.

The fraud was not uncovered until the film was finished, and questions are swirling about whether the filmmaker has an ethical obligation to change the documentary.

The Los Angeles Film Festival has pulled the documentary from contention for a prize. It also plans a discussion about the perils of wrapping a documentary production before a story has reached its conclusion.

Festival director Rebecca Yeldham did not immediately return a phone message seeking comment Friday.

Gertten, 53, stands by the film and his experiences interviewing workers in Nicaragua.

"I haven't seen any fraud. If I saw it, I would publish it," he said. "This film is valid. I hope Dole will understand it is a legitimate piece of work. ... I believe in freedom of speech and telling the story as I saw it."

Gertten would not provide an advance copy of the movie to The Associated Press. However, a trailer on his Web site shows a man in his coffin with a voiceover from one of his relatives saying: "Every time a banana worker who was exposed to this chemical dies, that is a victory for Dole. Every death is another victory."

Dole attorney Theodore Boutrous Jr. said Gertten has refused to let Dole representatives see the film before it is screened.

"This isn't complex and it isn't remotely a free speech or artistic expression issue," Boutrous said.

"Mr. Gertten got duped, but he won't admit it and instead apparently is intent on screening a knowingly false film."

Dole has threatened to sue for defamation if the film is shown and then distributed commercially.

"Bananas!" which has the subtitle "On Trial for Malice," documents the plight of workers who say they were made sterile by the pesticide DBCP used on Dole banana plantations in the 1970s.

It uses footage of a trial against Dole and details the efforts of Dominguez to help the workers.

An advance review in the LA Weekly says the film portrays Dominguez as "the unquestioned man-of-the-people hero," seeking justice for downtrodden workers.

But Judge Chaney said Dominguez and his Nicaraguan counterpart recruited men to pretend they had been banana workers and to make false allegations against Dole.

Chaney heard testimony that the men recruited by Dominguez were given false work histories and schooled in what it would have been like to work on a plantation. Some denied fathering their own children in their attempt to prove sterility.

The judge said if she had known the extent of the fraud, she would have stopped the trial over which she presided - the same trial depicted in the movie. The case is now being appealed. Chaney dismissed two other similar cases brought by Dominguez after hearing testimony.

"Contrary to their sworn testimony, most of the plaintiffs never worked on Dole-affiliated banana farms and none were involved in the DBCP application process," Chaney wrote in a 60-page dismissal ruling issued Wednesday.

"These plaintiffs and their counsel were part of a broader conspiracy that permeates all DBCP litigation arising from Nicaragua," it said.

Chaney was shown the trailer for the movie but said she would not intercede in its release because that would be impermissible prior restraint on free speech.

Dominguez's lawyer, Michael McCarthy, has told the AP his client is not being treated fairly by the court. He would not comment further.

Gertten said he is a former journalist who has produced or directed more than 20 documentaries, most of them on human interest subjects. He said "Bananas!" was made with support from a number of public broadcasting companies across Europe and the Sundance Channel.

"I'm not an activist filmmaker," he said, adding he was drawn to the subject when he heard that former banana workers had been camped outside the Nicaraguan Parliament in Managua for years demanding justice for being harmed by pesticides. He went there to see for himself.

Gertten said that if the accusations against Dominguez are true, "Of course it's terrible, but it's a complex situation."

In light of the controversy, film festival directors removed "Bananas!" from competition and placed it on the program as a case study.

Viewers at the planned screening will be given written material about the developments in the case and hear a statement that attempts to place the film's subject matter in context with Chaney's ruling. It will be followed by a discussion of the plight of a documentarian when a story continues to develop after the film is completed.

Gertten has also added a written card at the end explaining that the case depicted is on appeal and there are ongoing developments.

He repeatedly cited Judge Chaney's remark in her initial ruling that because of the fraud, "We will never know what happened in Nicaragua."

Asked if he now feels victimized by Dominguez, Gertten said, "Right now, I'm being victimized by Dole Food Co. I have to find out what really happened. Maybe that's my next film."

On the Net:
http://www.lafilmfest.com
http://www.bananasthemovie.com
http://www.dole.com/CompanyInfo/DBCP/DBCP(underscore)Index.jsp

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/ ... SECTION=US

New World Order, Globalist Elite and Corporate World are moving right along.

This is typical considering the previous behavior of Michael Moore and Charles Kernaghen. If the lie hurts an enemy of the Left more than the truth and the people who make up your audience are gullible go with the lie.