Since we get a lot of questions about our financing situation, we decided to let producer of BIG BOYS GONE BANANAS!*, Margarete Jangård, answer some of the most frequent questions we get. 

Image taken from BIG BOYS GONE BANANAS!*: In the midst of the controversy, Margarete recieved an aggresive letter with a provocative ending. Obviously the writer understood that a small production company will have problems surviving a fight with a bullying multinational.

Margarete. WG is still around, but how are you doing financially?

We lost a lot of money in the fight, almost $200,000, and this makes life hard for us. We work day and night to prove Dole and the writer of the letter wrong.

That’s a lot of money. But didn’t WG Film recieve a reimbursement from Dole? That must have covered the lawyers fees?

Yes, all of it went straight to our law firm to cover our legal costs. But two years of intense work on the defense consumed all of our time - we didn't have time for new projects. We make our living by doing films. Even if BANANAS!* travelled over 50 countries, a documentary can't win that kind of money back on the market. 

BIG BOYS GONE BANANAS!* is doing well all over the world. Is this not helping you?

It’s been great and we are really proud! Unfortunately the film was hard to finance. This time we got no North American funders onboard, and less European money too. We hope that the audience will help us now, by showing up in numbers at the theatres. We also hope we can sell DVD’s, and finally we have opened a donations page here at bigboysgonebananas.com.

How come you are asking for more money?

With no money it's hard to launch a film. It's like giving before you even started. So, donations will help us keep fighting. Fredrik and I keep travelling with the film. We love to meet the audience, the festival pays for travels and hotels, but we still need to pay salaries and all other overhead costs at the company. It’s costly to have a successful film, that you want to see travel the world.

 What if you don’t raise any more money? What will happen then?

If we don’t raise any money for our outreach, we risk having a film done that can’t be seen in the world because there was no money to distribute it. The message will be lost and Dole will have won the fight in the long run.

 So if someone wants to help, what should they do?

We need all the support we can get. If you would like to help financially, you can make a donation here on our website. If you don’t feel like donating, there is still a lot you can do. Go and see the film in cinemas, and bring your friends, we open theatrically in Canada in May for example. Or tell your friends to buy a DVD, when they become available. You can help us by spreading the word about us, tweet about us and tell friends and colleagues about us. There’s a lot you can do.

Help us fight back, please spread the word.

Thanks for your support!