Haven't been on ilx in a while but Was hoping to enlist y'all to go out and see a great film and use your various charms and/or mailing lists to get others to do so.
Two friends of mine recently completed a documentary called "Black Gold", that explores the inequities of the global coffee trade. The film has a specific focus on Ethiopia which is how I got to meet 'em.
The film has been getting stellar reviews on the festival circuit and is about to go into theatrical release. Documentaries not being known for general appeal its important to get audiences out in the first week to help ensure its stay in the theaters.
The film opens tomorrow Oct. 6 in New York at Cinema Village and in Seattle at Landmark's Metro and then in other scattered venues around the countryi n the following weeks Attaching a link to the website, screening dates & reviews. Thanks for the help
http://blackgoldmovie.com/screenings.php
http://blackgoldmovie.com/reviews.php
The Story
Multinational coffee companies now rule our shopping malls and supermarkets and dominate the industry worth over $80 billion, making coffee the most valuable trading commodity in the world after oil.
But while we continue to pay for our lattes and cappuccinos, the price paid to coffee farmers remains so low that many have been forced to abandon their coffee fields.
Nowhere is this paradox more evident than in Ethiopia, the birthplace of coffee. Tadesse Meskela is one man on a mission to save his 74,000 struggling coffee farmers from bankruptcy. As his farmers strive to harvest some of the highest quality coffee beans on the international market, Tadesse travels the world in an attempt to find buyers willing to pay a fair price.
Against the backdrop of Tadesse's journey to London and Seattle, the enormous power of the multinational players that dominate the world's coffee trade becomes apparent. New York commodity traders, the international coffee exchanges, and the double dealings of trade ministers at the World Trade Organisation reveal the many challenges Tadesse faces in his quest for a long term solution for his farmers.
― H (Heruy), Thursday, 5 October 2006 16:17 (nineteen years ago)
hi guys, nice to see i'm not completely forgotten here
Marc & Nick are trying to get more places to take the film so may come to montreal and back to LA, and ally, i think it opens in DC in december
review in the Times today, posting below
The Global Coffee Trade, a Bitter Brew for the Poor
By STEPHEN HOLDEN
Published: October 6, 2006
The documentary “Black Gold” tells an unresolved modern version of the age-old David and Goliath story. The giants in this case are multinational corporations that control the worldwide coffee market. The heroic little guy, Tadesse Meskela, represents the Oromia Coffee Farmers Co-op Union, which encompasses 74 co-ops in southern Ethiopia. That country, the birthplace of coffee, produces some of the highest-quality beans in the world.
Mr. Meskela devotes himself tirelessly to traveling the world looking for buyers who will pay a fair price for the beans harvested by the nation’s 70,000 coffee farmers. Instead of wielding a slingshot, he works circuitously by eliminating many of the middlemen who drive up the price of coffee and bypassing commodities exchanges to sell his product directly to buyers. His cause has been embraced by the fair-trade movement, which is working to bring so-called fairly traded commodities like chocolate and bananas, as well as coffee, to increasing numbers of American grocery stores.
Directed by the English documentary filmmakers Nick and Marc Francis, “Black Gold” eventually widens its scope of inquiry to examine the World Trade Organization, which, it claims, prevents the world’s poorer countries from developing export trade, leaving them dependent on emergency relief.
The opening scenes examine the coffee-making process, from the harvesting of beans by Ethiopian workers who earn less than 50 cents a day to the movement of the product through various stages into the retail market.
Along the way the film dishes out facts: coffee is the second most actively traded commodity in the world, after oil; since 1990, retail sales of coffee have increased to $80 billion from $30 billion. Globally, about 2 billion cups of coffee are consumed a day, 400 million of those in the United States. Four multinational corporations dominate the world coffee market, with the international price determined in New York and London.
In Ethiopia 67 percent of the country’s export revenue comes from coffee, and 11 million people count on coffee for their survival.
“Black Gold” adroitly segues between scenes of poor agricultural workers sorting through coffee beans and high-end coffee tasting competitions and exhibitions of brewing machines. A Seattle tour traces the history of Starbucks; during a visit to a Starbucks outlet, a happy employee gushes about being in “the people-touching business.”
At a World Trade Organization convocation in Cancun, Mexico, embittered ministers of trade for developing African nations complain about being excluded from negotiations and flatly reject the agreements imposed on them. Eventually the movie returns to Ethiopia, where it finds a famine is taking hold. Coffee farmers, facing bankruptcy, have begun to replace their coffee fields with chat, a chewable narcotic plant that commands a higher price.
One of the most disquieting (and challenging) statistics is left for last: if Africa’s share of world trade increased by only one percentage point, it would generate $70 billion a year, five times what the continent receives in aid. Who wouldn’t want that?
― H (Heruy), Friday, 6 October 2006 13:20 (nineteen years ago)