Black Gold
First, Black Gold is a 2006 documentary about an Ethiopian farmer's journey
around the world as he attempts to get a fair price for his quality coffee
beans. Directed by British brothers Marc
and Nick Francis, the film addresses the international coffee trade and its
ramifications for the farmers. The film took three years to make
with a budget of $760,000.
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."
Finally, BLACK Gold doesn't
provide any clean or clear solutions – Those are up to the viewer to find. And
the film won't answer all the questions you might have about fair trade or
world trade or many of the other questions you may have. Instead, the film
points to some of the underlying problems that are creating the coffee crisis:
unfair farm subsidies of western countries, skewed negotiations at the WTO, the
aid provided to African countries in lieu of fair trade.
If you're a
coffee drinker, this film's a must-see. And if after watching it, you want to
get more involved with Black Gold and fair trade.
ไม่มีความคิดเห็น:
แสดงความคิดเห็น