THE BLOG

BIG BOYS GONE BANANAS!* will be shown on 38 screens in Sweden in the coming month. The launch has already started with great film parties together with our friends at Doc Lounge in Malmö, Lund, Stockholm and Göteborg.

Friday 24 February the film opens in 14 theatres that will play the film commercially. On Wednesday 29th there will be a live broadcast from Malmö to 18 cinemas around the country. The audience can send text messages with questions to the director Fredrik Gertten and his lawyer Lincoln Bandlow.

Lincoln Bandlow is invited to Sweden to give a speech in parliament the same day, just before a screening of the film for the Swedish legislators. After the screening in parliament there will be debate about the worrying lack of balance between independent journalism and the growing PR and lobbying industry. Fredrik Gertten has been very active debating this issue in Swedish media over the last weeks. He asks for transparency:

"We the citizens need to know who pays for the lobbying. And how much."

Internationally, the film's festival life is gearing up. After IDFA in Amsterdam, the Sundance Film Festival, and Doc Point in Helsinki, now comes Zagreb Docs, the One World Film Festival in Prague, and the Festival Internacional de Cine de Punta del Este in Uruguay, with more to be announced soon.

Below is a full list of the Swedish screenings.

Bart Simpson from Canada (yes, he's heard the jokes) was a co-producer of the original BANANAS!* movie and hence became a subject of BIG BOYS GONE BANANAS!*. And as a co-producer of THE CORPORATION, he's familiar with the nature of the beast. Here's his account of a unique Sundance experience.

After getting stuck at the Seattle airport for 27 hours (not something I recommend; they really don’t know how to deal with snow), any change of scenery was welcome. So you can imagine the joy I felt at finally landing in Salt Lake City and meeting a nice resident who offered to drive me and my new airport buddy David (co-director of the excellent 5 Broken Cameras) straight to the theatre where BIG BOYS GONE BANANAS!* was set to have its North American premiere at Sundance.

See the whole interview here.

Never been to Park City before, always heard about it. So arriving in this remote mountain resort was quite confusing at first. How can this place host one of the world's most important film festivals? After only a few days, now that the streets and bars are crowded, I understand it better. Everybody is here, and if you're lucky you'll bump into celebrities on a slippery, snowy street.

Many great filmmakers are presenting their work here at Sundance. So you never know how your own film will be recieved. Arriving at the Prospector theatre for the very first U.S. screening of BIG BOYS GONE BANANAS!*, I was a bit nervous. Yet the festival is so professional, you really feel welcome and safe. Projection and sound are perfect. Respect!

When my film was starting to roll I could finally lean back and enjoy it. And the audience did so, too. They were laughing. Some booed, upset by the big boys' behavior...

Time to go West, to my very first Sundance Film Festival. Flying out today: Copenhagen, Chicago, Salt Lake City, and then a shuttle up to Park City.
My schedule is booked: screenings, parties and morning radio-shows!

Friday will see our very first US screening of BIG BOYS GONE BANANAS!*. Remembering the L.A. Film Festival premiere of BANANAS!* we know we can except anything. So the butterflies will be there. But my lawyer Lincoln Bandlow will be there with me. Feels good, and safe.

Our Kickstarter campaign has taken off in a very positive way. Soon 6,000 dollars, after only six days. There's still way to go before we reach our target of 15,000 dollars. If we don't get there, no money will be transferred. So please keep spreading the news, and tell your friends to join the campaign.

2012 is now in full swing, and we hope it'll only bring the best for you! We think we can give this new year a bigger theme. For us, it'll be the year of free speech in documentary. 

This is not just about our own films. It happens quite often that corporate control freaks threaten independent documentary filmmakers and their livelihoods. Or as Dole's PR company said it: "It is easier to cope with a bad conscience than a bad reputation." Here's another example, an article published this weekend in the NY Times about what happened to Joe Berlinger who had made a film about Chevron's mess in Ecuador.

With the Sundance Film Festival, we're lucky enough to have the greatest possible launch platform for BIG BOYS GONE BANANAS!*. What we don’t have is the money to pay for the initial costs of such a launch. We’re still suffering from the loss of all the time and money that went into the fight Dole had brought upon us. Against all odds, we did succeed in making my previous film available to people around the world. But this came at a huge price.

That's why we've decided to reach out and ask for your help. Today, we're launching a crowd-funding campaign on Kickstarter...

An email from Caroline Libresco made my heart beat.

Dear Fredrik and Margarete,
On behalf of John Cooper, Director of the Sundance Film Festival, it’s our great pleasure to invite BIG BOYS GONE BANANAS!* to play in our World Cinema Documentary Competition at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival. Our programming team is very excited to present the North American premiere of this excellent film.

One email can sometimes change a lot of things. This one was then followed by a flood of emails from film festivals, sales agents, distributors, journalists – and of course friends wishing us all the best.

The screening times and venues for BIG BOYS GONE BANANAS!* at the Sundance Film Festival have now been published. 

You can use the RSVP function of this website to let us know you're coming – but don't forget to by buy your tickets directly from Sundance!

This is what Sundance says about our film...

After the last screening at IDFA Film Festival on 27 November, Fredrik Gertten attended a special Question & Answer session at the Tuschinski cinema. Moderator was the well-known VPRO journalist Teun van de Keuken. Thanks a million to photographer Frank Verburg who filmed it all. Enjoy!