Black Gold

A Look at Coffee Production Around the World

This film traces the tangled trail from the two billion cups of coffee consumed each day back to the coffee farmers who produce the beans. In particular, It follows Tadesse Meskela as he tries to get a living wage for the 70,000 Ethiopian coffee farmers he represents. In the process BLACK GOLD provides the most in-depth study of any commodity on film today and offers a compelling introduction to the 'fair trade' movement galvanizing consumers around the globe.

After oil, coffee is the most actively traded commodity in the world with $80 billion dollars in retail sales. But farmers make as little as three cents for every cup of coffee sold in the U.S. or Europe. Most of the rest of the money goes to the middlemen, especially the four giant food conglomerates which control the coffee market. BLACK GOLD asks us 'to wake up and smell the coffee,' to face the unjust conditions under which our favorite drink is produced and to decide what we can do about it.

Official Selection at the Sundance Film Festival. Official Selection at the Hot Docs Film Festival.

"The documentary is as riveting and jaw-dropping as anything currently starring Leonardo DiCaprio. But "Black Gold" transcends both dramatization and the dry presentational quality of a film like "An Inconvenient Truth" by telling the story of Ethiopia's coffee farmers like the epic tragedy that it is." Corina Chocano, Los Angeles Times

"Black Gold goes beyond giving Starbucks sippers guilt trips. It gives a fascinating and nearly forgotten history of coffee in Ethiopia." Delfin Vigil, San Francisco Chronicle