- Black Gold (film)
Infobox Film
name = Black Gold
director = Mark Francis, Nick Francis
editing = Hugh Williams
music by = Andreas Kapsalis
producer = Christopher Hird
writer = Mark Francis, Nick Francis
starring = Tadesse Meskela
distributor =California Newsreel
released =2006 (USA)
runtime = 78 min.
language = English
imdb_id = 0492447"Black Gold" is a 2006 documentary film about the international
coffee trade and its ramifications for the farmers who grow coffee. It was directed by two British brothers,Marc Francis andNick Francis .ynopsis
The film focuses on the coffee growers of the
Oromia Region of southern and westernEthiopia , the birthplace of coffee. It followsTadesse Meskela , the General Manager of theOromia Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union , as he visits coffee-growing regions in Sidamo and Oromia (including the Kilenso Mokonisa Cooperative in the Bure Horaworeda in theBorena Zone of the Oromia Region), as well as a coffee processing center, a coffee auction house, and his union's headquarters inAddis Ababa . He also travels toEngland and theUnited States in an effort to promote Ethiopian coffee by eliminating the numerous middlemen. There is also a scene where coffee farmers pray to God for a higher price, which was filmed at the Negele Gorbitu Cooperative, located nearIrgachefe in the Abaya woreda of the Borena Zone. The Ethiopian footage was filmed on two occasions (in 2003 and 2005), for six weeks each time. [http://www.portafilter.net/2006/11/podcast-56-black-gold-movie.html] The Ethiopian coffee farmers speak about their lives, with one explaining that he is cutting down his coffee plants and planting "chat" (a plant containingcathinone , an amphetamine-like stimulant) instead, due to the low price he is getting for coffee due to the explosion in coffee farmers across the globe, and the comparatively higher price he can get for "chat".The film also includes footage of the
New York Board of Trade , a commodity trading floor inNew York City , where the "C" international benchmark price of coffee is set each business day based on supply and demand, and explores the effects that these international prices (which by 2006 were at an all-time low) have on Ethiopian coffee growers. Other footage was shot at the firstStarbucks and the WorldBarista Championship at the 2005Specialty Coffee Association of America conference in Seattle; and at a café and theIlly coffee company inTrieste ,Italy . These scenes stand in stark contrast to the footage of the impoverished conditions faced by the Ethiopian coffee farmers and their families.Although
Starbucks , Sara Lee,Procter & Gamble ,Kraft , andNestlé - the world's largest sellers of coffee - are mentioned in the film, all five companies declined invitations to be interviewed for the film.The film's budget was US$760,000. [http://archives.seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/texis.cgi/web/vortex/display?slug=starbucksdoc28&date=20061128]
External links
* [http://www.blackgoldmovie.com/ "Black Gold" official site]
* [http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/blackgold/"BLACK GOLD"] site forIndependent Lens onPBS
*imdb title|0492447|title=Black Gold
* [http://www.ethicalconsumer.org/magazine/press/2007/blackgold.htm Interview with film makers Marc & Nick Francis] inEthical Consumer magazine
* [http://www.oromiacoffeeunion.org/ Oromia Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union official site]
* [http://www.oxfamamerica.org/whatwedo/where_we_work/hornofafrica/news_publications/art3288.html Oromia Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union official page] from Oxfam site
* [http://www.greendevelopment.nl/progreso/ocfcu/ Oromia Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union page]Video
* [http://www.blackgoldmovie.com/ "Black Gold" trailer]
* [http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=-3665203047400729180&q=black+gold "Black Gold" documentary]Listening
* [http://www.portafilter.net/2006/11/podcast-56-black-gold-movie.html Interview with the filmmakers] , from November 2006
Reviews
* [http://www.tobloggle.co.uk/black-gold-film-review/ Review from a UK screening]
* [http://www.coffee.net/coffee/black-gold/ Review and documentary companion guide from Coffee.net]ee also
*
Ethiopian Sidamo (coffee)
*Blood Diamond (film)
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