Black Gold

As westerners revel in designer lattes and cappuccinos, impoverished Ethiopian coffee growers suffer the bitter taste of injustice. In this eye-opening expose of the multi-billion dollar coffee industry, BLACK GOLD traces one man's fight for fair trade.

Multinational coffee companies 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 75,000 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 commodities traders, the international coffee exchanges, and the double dealings of trade ministers at the World Trade Organization reveal the many challenges Tadesse faces in his quest for a long term solution for his farmers.

Oxfam America has partnered with the US distributors of Black Gold to provide film viewers with opportunities to learn more about the international coffee crisis, and to take actions that address the plight of the impoverished coffee farmers in Ethiopia and other coffee-producing countries. For more information, visit Oxfam America's coffee campaign:

http://www.oxfamamerica.org/whatwedo/campaigns/coffee

"A beautifully made, provocative and very righteous documentary." (John Anderson, Newsday)

"As coffee drinkers know, not all beans are equal, but the meaning of inequality gets an entirely different spin in Marc and Nick Francis' handsome and astute doc, Black Gold." (Robert Koehler, Variety)

"No mere Western-guilt-inducing harangue, this highly informative documentary by British brothers Marc and Nick Francis is a model of patient storytelling." (Rob Nelson, Village Voice)

"BLACK GOLD, a compelling documentary about the international coffee industry, might discourage you from ever drinking a cup of joe again. At the very least, it'll make you think deeply about what's going into that cup." (Jason McBride, Globe and Mail)'

"Guaranteed to make you think twice about what you're paying for what you're drinking." (Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune)