FREDRIK GERTTEN, THE IMPORTANT DIRECTOR WHO SUFFERED, FOUGHT AND WON FOR FREE SPEECH AGAINST THE CORPORATE PIGS OF THE DOLE CORPORATION NEEDS YOUR ASSISTANCE TO MAKE HIS IMPORTANT NEW FILM "BIKES VS. CARS" A REALITY! YOU HAVE 15 more DAYS TO BE AN IMPORTANT PART OF THE NEW PICTURE BY THE DIRECTOR OF "BIG BOYS GONE BANANAS"and "BANANAS", the films that exposed the DOLE CORPORATION'S WILFUL DISREGARD FOR FREE SPEECH AND THEIR DISGRACEFUL TREATMENT AND EXPLOITATION OF NICARAGUAN MIGRANT FRUIT PICKERS - Report By Greg Klymkiw

FREDRIK GERTTEN IS ONE OF THE WORLD'S FOREMOST DOCUMENTARY FILMMAKERS!

HE NEEDS YOUR HELP

WITH HIS NEW

MOTION PICTURE!

HE NEEDS IT NOW!

FOR CHANGE!

Report By Greg Klymkiw

I've written about Fredrik Gertten on numerous occasions.

When I saw his terrifying, harrowing, but ultimately uplifting film BIG BOYS GONE BANANAS, I was convinced I had seen the work of a genuine filmmaker - an artist of the highest order and though, he refuses to think of himself this way, one of the world's most important activists.

Gertten is making an important NEW film: In his own words:

"Bikes vs Cars is not only a film, we are a part of a global movement. This feature-length documentary, a work-in-progress aiming for 2014 release, is meant to be used an engine for all of us that think change is needed and possible. The film will investigate the politics that keep the car model thriving. Here's a peak into the synopsis:

There’s an ongoing war: bikes vs cars. A multi-billion dollar industry that from early days has done everything to make society car dependent. Hundreds of billions of dollars are invested every year to sell the dream of car freedom. Now, oil prices and traffic gridlock have opened up room for bicycle revenge. Creative initiatives pop up, politicians and activists take on the mighty car. The car lobbyists have an enormous impact on city planning, in history and today. Do politicians dare to challenge the lobbyists?

Gertten has so far raised just under $23,000 of a $50,000 goal.

He has a mere 15 days to make the goal.

There are few filmmakers out there I would advocate for in this way: Fredrik Gertten is one of them.

He makes great films, BUT, they also INSPIRE CHANGE!!!

During the 2012 Hot Docs Film Festival I wrote the following:

"In the summer of 2009 I became aware of a curious case wherein Fredrik Gertten, a documentary filmmaker from Sweden (along with his producing partners) was being sued by the Dole corporate fruit bats and that the Los Angeles Film Festival had yanked his film Bananas*! out of official competition and relegated it to a special screening.

The internet media coverage I read - even at the time - seemed slanted against the filmmaker and his expose of Dole's exploitation of fruit workers in Nicaragua. Sounded to me like the Dreaded Dole Dandies were irresponsibly and knowingly using pesticides that caused sterility in numerous men working the fields.

My response to this was typical - of me! I scoured the cupboards to see if there were any cans or packages with the Dole label. Thank Christ, there were none - nor were there any fresh fruits in the fridge.

I hate throwing out food, but I would have anyway. From that day on, I have never purchased anything with Dole's name attached to it. Without knowing more than the seemingly spurious accounts in the articles about the lawsuit, I sided with the filmmaker - AGAINST Dole.

They're a corporation, after all. A multi-national corporation at that. I simply have no use for such entities. As far as I'm concerned, they're all criminals - organized criminals.

What sickened me even more than the attack by Dole upon an artist's God-Given right to free speech was the appalling behaviour of the Los Angeles Film Festival (LAFF). A film festival - no matter how big, small or (in the case of the LAFF) inconsequential - has a duty to ALWAYS support artists. End of story. No arguments allowed. Anyone who disagrees can crawl back into whatever pro-censorship-anti-free-speech slime pit of fascism they crawled out of. Hopefully, I won't see you in Hell as I had to renounce Satan at my Godson Illya's christening some time ago.

So, I finally saw Bananas*!. It's a powerful, shocking and moving film about Dole's corporate irresponsibility to its own workers. A few days later, I watched Gertten's new picture, Big Boys Gone Bananas!* and I am so happy he made this film.

From a personal standpoint, it says and exposes the truth behind everything I believe in about American (and by extension, Canadian) imperialist corporate culture - how most governments, politicians and bureaucrats are mere pawns and puppets in "democracies" that are little more than corporate-owned totalitarian states.

That mainstream media is becoming increasingly useless.

That the notion that free speech exists is drastically diminishing.

And last, but not least, the idiotic hoops a filmmaker must go through to protect themselves from nuisance suits launched by corporate scumbags.

All of this is simply beyond the pale.

Once he was slapped with a huge lawsuit from Dole, Gertten wisely began to document his struggle on film. What he captures is borderline surreal."

A few weeks later, I wrote the following words specifically in reference to Big Boys Gone Bananas:

"The feelings engendered by the great paranoid thrillers of 70s American Cinema are alive and well again - crackling with the same terror, dread and mounting odds against one man or a handful of individuals who are fighting oppressive, almost dystopian, virtually Orwellian dark forces.

The difference, though, is that our central figure is NOT Warren Beatty in Alan J. Pakula's The Parallax View, stumbling upon a corporation devoted to political assassination.

Our protagonist is NOT Donald Sutherland's Department of Health bureaucrat in Philip Kaufman's brilliant re-working of Don Siegel's Invasion of the Body Snatchers where under the creepy spire of San Francisco's Trans-America tower he battles the ultimate scourge upon the human race.

Nor are we watching Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman playing Washington Post reporters Woodward and Bernstein in All The President's Men (Pakula again), skulking about dark underground parking lots in search of the truth behind the Watergate conspiracy.

The 70s paranoid thriller has, in fact, been reborn in Fredrik Gertten's stunning documentary feature Big Boys Gone Bananas!* and in spite of the title, and though the movie features absurdity of the most extreme kind, we are also not dealing with a Will Ferrell comedy.

This is a straight-up mystery thriller. That said, it's a true story. And what we see is what was actually happening to the film's central figure - Gertten himself - a documentary filmmaker embroiled in the dark, nasty manipulations of an evil corporate entity - the Dole Corporation."

PLEASE VISIT FREDRIK'S
KICKSTARTER PAGE
FOR MORE INFO HERE!

WATCH FREDRIK'S FILM ABOUT THE INVISIBLE BIKE HELMET. YOU CAN GET ONE WITH A PLEDGE. WATCH THE MOVIE HERE.

READ MY ORIGINAL INTERVIEW AND REVIEW OF FREDRIK'S WORK HERE

And for all my friends, colleagues and fans who know how rabidly anti-bike I am, you might wonder why I am supporting this film myself.

#1 I am anti-stupid-assholes-who-ride-bikes-and-do-not-obey-the-rules-of-the-road.

#2 I am anti-government-regulations-that-equate-any-moving-vehicles-on-the-road-as-pedestrians-instead-of-treating-them-as-vehicles-that-need-to-be-insured-and-need-to-adhere-to-the-same-rules-and-standards.

#3 I am anti-stupid-design-of-bike-lanes-designed-by-idiots-who-could-not-design-anything-never-mind-something-that-importantly-affects-everyone. I have not been on a bike since 1975.

Perhaps Fredrik will change my mind.

What I KNOW he will do is make a GREAT FUCKING MOVIE.

That's all I really care about.

LIONEL ROGOSIN: GIVING VOICE - "ARAB ISRAELI DIALOGUE" How and Why this Important Dialogue MUST Absolutely Continue - By Greg Klymkiw

"Rogosin is probably the greatest documentary filmmaker of all time." - John Cassavetes

The immortal groundbreaking work
of the late documentary filmmaker Lionel Rogosin
yielded a bounty that influenced the generations who followed him.
His last film, "ARAB ISRAELI DIALOGUE"
is now on the verge of a major restoration to
continue the dialogue he began in 1974.

Lionel Rogosin - Giving Voice
ARAB ISRAELI DIALOGUE - How and Why the Dialogue MUST Continue

By Greg Klymkiw

Cinema and indeed, mankind as a whole, owes a debt of gratitude to the late filmmaker Lionel Rogosin. Inspired by the Italian neorealist movement and in particular, the work of Vittorio (Bicycle Thieves) DeSica as well as the groundbreaking docudrama by Robert (Nanook of the North) Flaherty and Lewis Milestone's evocative film adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front, Rogosin created an important body of work. He gave voice to the disenfranchised in a style that built upon his chief influences and his own life experience experience whilst developing a unique style that was all his own.

Rogosin influenced such diverse talents as John Cassavetes (Shadows), Martin Scorsese (Who's That Knocking at My Door?) and the realist vérité of UK's "Angry Young Man" genre, including John Schlesinger (Terminus, Midnight Cowboy). The list, frankly goes on. Even filmmakers influenced by those influenced by Rogosin - whether they worked in drama, documentary or docudrama - benefited, continue to benefit and will forever benefit from his work and style. Rogosin's legacy is boundless and as long as there are motion pictures, so many future filmmakers will create their work in ways that sprung from the very roots of Lionel Rogosin (whether they realize it or not).

There is, however, a missing piece to all this.

Arab Israeli Dialogue, Rogosin's final film, was never properly completed in a manner that would have allowed the dialogue to continue in cinematic form. Lacking funds before his death to continue this important exploration, we're left with his important work from 1974, but there was so much left to discover through his lens up until his death in 2000 and beyond. This is a piece of cinema that is most likely needed now more than ever. In these times of political and economic upheaval due to the cumulative effects of a seemingly never-ending war that's been going on as long as the Crusades, it is a conflict that has reached critical levels during the past century (and most specifically during the past decade and a bit). I'd suggest that without further dialogue it's not a stretch to assume that life as we know it may be altered forever, and in many ways, already has been.

We need this film desperately and for a pittance it can be restored, expanded and, in a sense - finished.

It MUST be finished.

Rogosin's importance to cinema has seldom been paralleled. He pioneered the forward movement of cinéma vérité (using the camera to provoke reality by blending "fly-on-the-wall" direct cinema with stylized approaches and specific set-ups that utilize overt narrative technique), and thus forged a path that opened up a whole world of great filmmaking. I'd argue strenuously that without Rogosin, things might well have been a lot different. The art form, the genre of documentary itself might not have easily yielded the work subsequently provided by the likes of Sinofsky/Berlinger, Michael Moore, Nick Broomfield, Ulrich Seidl, Claude Jutra, Michel Brault, Allan King, Albert/David Maysles, Alan Zweig, Peter Lynch, D.A. Pennebaker, Fredrik Gertten, Barbara Kopple and frankly, a list that could stretch on for a few more miles.

John Cassavetes declared: "Rogosin is probably the greatest documentary filmmaker of all time."

Indeed, Rogosin was poised for greatness through his life experience. He earned a degree in Chemical Engineering at Yale and was going to join his father's textile firm. World War II interrupted these career plans and he ended up serving in the Navy. His harrowing participation in the war affected him deeply - especially after the war, when he travelled through the debris of a decimated Europe. Returning to America, he did not stay with his father's firm long, deciding to pursue his interest in human rights, activism and cinema.

His ultimate goal was to create work that would benefit mankind.

His first film was the immortal On The Bowery wherein he focused his lens upon the post-war lives of America's forgotten men, many of whom lived in the squalor of the Bowery in New York City - a former upscale neighbourhood that transformed - almost overnight - into a worldwide symbol of urban blight. Seedy hotels, flophouses, pawn shops, soup kitchens and sleazy taverns became the lifeblood of the district. Attracting a generation-or-three of men who had suffered through war, these aimlessly shell-shocked victims of American prosperity and might, eked out a living as seasonal and migratory labourers - many of whom "rode the rails", risking the brutality of rail bulls, a criminal element and even incarceration. They sought cheap rent and cheap booze to drown their pain and sorrow. Blowing their earnings on potent mescal and beer chasers, a lot of them couldn't even afford flea-bitten flophouses and lived on the street.

The Bowery ran rampant with homelessness and Rogosin was there to indelibly capture it on film. For the rest of his filmmaking career, his commitment to artistically exposing humanity on the fringes became his badge of honour.

He was also committed to exposing audiences to the finest cinema and to this end, he was the founder, owner and programmer of New York's legendary Bleecker from 1960 until its untimely demise in the early 90s. (I am often elated and saddened at the same time that a film I produced, Guy Maddin's Archangel, was one of two feature films (the other being Todd Haynes's Poison) to be the cinema's final showing. Woody Allen fans will have experienced the cinema when scenes involving movie-watching occurred in Allen's films - he not only shot the scenes there, but loved the cinema dearly.

In fact, Arab Israeli Dialogue was shot in the basement of the cinema itself.

Those who care about cinema have a chance to participate directly in the important legacy of Lionel Rogosin.

There is a new initiative as mentioned above to continue Rogosin's work with respect to his final work. Spearheaded by his son, (a director-producer in his own right) Michael Rogosin (and in partnership with editor and videographer Adrian Rothschild), I urge you to contribute to the online Kickstarter campaign for this cinematic exploration of Lionel Rogosin's film, Arab Israeli Dialogue. This will include all new footage that extends Rogosin's intentions and desires to keep the dialogue going as well as finishing Rogosin's unfinished work with the subject which was not completed before his death.

No amount donated will be considered too small.

I especially urge my fellow countrymen of Canada - specifically our currently beleagured documentary filmmakers to join the cause. Rogosin spent his whole life going through what you have gone through for your art. That said, your art was ALWAYS directly or indirectly influenced by Rogosin. If 100 Canadian documentary filmmakers contributed $10 each, it would represent about 25% of what's currently required.

I also urge every documentary filmmaker who had their film in this year's Hot Docs film festival in Toronto to contribute.

I urge every buyer, seller, producer and forum participant in Hot Docs 2013 to contribute.

In these dark days, filmmakers MUST join forces with other filmmakers to continue a world wide tradition of excellence.

To learn more about the efforts to restore and expand Arab Israeli Dialogue into A Modern Arab Israeli Dialogue and pledge a modest or huge amount of money, please visit http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1881116046/a-modern-arab-israeli-dialogue . This is the official Kickstarter pledge site.

REMEMBER: You have until Thursday May 23, 1:34pm EDT, to contribute.

To learn more about Lionel Rogosin, feel free to read my review of On The Bowery HERE.

To learn more about the restoration, preservation and distribution of Rogosin's work and other groundbreaking works of cinematic art, visit the website of Milestone Films from the visionary Dennis Doros and Amy Heller HERE and for their efforts with respect to Rogosin's On The Bowery and Come Back Africa.