Fredrik Gertten

Born

1956-04-03

Birthplace

Malmö, Sweden

Biography

Carl Fredrik (von) Gertten was a Swedish filmmaker and journalist. Gertten had a prolific career spanning journalism across continents—Africa, Latin America, Asia, and Europe—through the 1980s and 1990s. In 1995, he authored the travel book "Ung man söker världen" (Young Man Looking for the World) under the Gong Gong förlag publishing. His journalistic contributions extended to newspapers like Arbetet until its closure in 2000 and Kvällsposten from 2001 to 2003. Gertten ventured into television production, producing documentaries and entertainment shows for Swedish channels SVT, TV 4, and TV 3. Notably, in 2009, his production company faced a defamation lawsuit from Dole Food Company following the US screening of "Bananas!"—a documentary exploring a conflict between Dole and Nicaraguan banana plantation workers over alleged sterility cases linked to the pesticide DBCP. The court eventually ruled in favor of Gertten's production company, inspiring his 2011 documentary "Big Boys Gone Bananas!" highlighting the legal battle.