Independent Lens : Black Gold (2007)

Sub-Genres - Social Issues  |   Run Time - 87 min.  |   Countries - United States  |  
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Synopsis by Jason Buchanan

Filmmakers Marc and Nick Francis team to explore the discrepancy between the skyrocketing profits of multinational coffee companies and the all-time low prices paid for coffee harvests in a documentary that aims to provide a voice to the struggling farmers and laborers who strive to keep the coffee flowing. As devastated farmers are forced to sell off their once-bountiful lands simply to make ends meet, Ethiopia's once-thriving coffee industry slowly falls to ruin; but one man is out to fight for the struggling laborers. Tadesse Meskela represents over 70,000 struggling coffee farmers, and in his mission to help the farmers preserve their rich heritage, Meskela has traveled to every corner of the globe on a mission to seek out fair prices for what are often considered the highest-quality beans on the market.

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Keywords

coffee, big-business, Ethiopia, free-trade, global-economy, globalization, Third-World