Characterized by Village Voice critic J. Hoberman as "one of the few filmmakers engaged in rethinking social documentary," Gitai examines First/Third World relations, in particular the routine exploitation of labor through the everyday functioning of international capital, in a number of his formal essay films. The passionate and persuasive Pineapple does this by tracing the production of a single can of pineapple. It originated from a unique "script": a xerox copy of a label taken off a box of Dole pineapples. It indicated that they were produced in the Philippines, packed in Honolulu, distributed in San Francisco, and the label printed in Japan. Gitai thus shifts from the fields to the factory, interviewing fruit pickers, Dole family and employees, and a missionary, among others, ultimately revealing the level of control and suppression efficient commodity production demands. As consumers, Gitai implicates us all, but he also implies that we are all threatened by current economic structures.