Banana Land: Blood, Bullets and Poison

Banana Land: Blood, Bullets and Poison is a documentary film investigating the history of banana agribusiness.

It shows how the companies who harvested the innocent fruit were fuelled by an unstoppable greed and used their power to remove any who’d get in their way.

This reached far beyond mere agribusiness. These banana companies would entangle themselves in political power manipulations, violence and murder in search of an unquestionable domination of the market.

Starting off in early 20th century, we’ll witness how the exploitation and manipulation of the agribusiness originates from the former Banana Republics (a banana republic describes a politically unstable country with an economy dependent upon the exportation of a limited-resource product, such as bananas or minerals).

Through the film we’ll witness how companies like the United Fruit Company ordered the Colombian Military to massacre thousands of banana worker protesters.

We’ll see the coup which overthrew Guatemala president Jacobo Arbenz and the recent payments to paramilitary death squads by the company Chiquita.

Throughout the documentary, we’ll view the greed and extremes each of these fruit companies secured their assets with – often through the means of violence, murder and political manipulation.

By studying these historical atrocities, it gives us a chance to reflect on the on-going abuse happening today – effectively demonstrating the pattern of social and environmental exploitation perpetrated by government leaders and corporate executives and their enforcers.