The Anglo-Ethiopian Society
Film - Black Gold
From Friday 8th June 2007 to Tuesday 28th August 2007
An exploration of the global coffee industry (worth over $80 billion a year) provides the impetus for Black Gold, a politically direct and vital documentary from filmmakers Marc and Nick Francis which will certainly leave viewers with plenty to stew on when next ordering a latte or cappuccino. As profits for multinational coffee companies continue to increase, the price paid for coffee harvests have fallen to such an extent that farmers in some of the world's poorest countries are forced to abandon their crops. Ethiopia, recognised as the birthplace of coffee, is one of the hardest hit countries, and the film follows Tadesse Meskela, General Manager of a co-operative union that represents some 70,000 struggling Ethiopian farmers, as he goes on an international campaign to promote the plight of his members and seek to establish a fair trade market for their produce. The film takes us to the coffee commodity exchanges in New York and London, where daily prices are set, and to a branch of Starbucks, illustrating how the customers' demand for coffee has grown in the last decade.
Michael Hayden
The film is on general release in the UK and Ireland from June 8th 2007.
Screenings will take place in London, Oxford, Manchester, Edinburgh, Cardiff, Birmingham, Bath, Dartington, Coventry, Bradford, Horsham, Keswick, Glasgow, Wolverhampton, Bristol, Lancaster, Hull, Nottingham, Exeter, Cambridge, Rochdale, Dundee, Brighton, Newport, Inverness, Bracknell, Welwyn, Stirling, Jersey, Belfast, Dublin, Galway....
More details about the film are available at the Black Gold Movie website.
A full list of UK Screenings can also be found.