Dogwoof Pictures is delighted to present Marc and Nick Francis’ poignant and powerful debut documentary Black Gold, an exploration of the hugely unfair trade between the multi-million pound coffee industry and the poverty stricken coffee producers of Ethiopia. Black Gold will be released on DVD on 22 October 2007.In the same vein as Al Gore’s hard-hitting documentary An Inconvenient Truth, this moving and eye-opening film focuses on hard-working Fair Trade coffee representative Tadesse Meskela and his struggle to keep his 74,000 poverty stricken coffee farmers from Western exploitation. He also contends with the possible destruction of their well tended and prized coffee plantations and the temptation of them turning to the production of the more lucrative narcotic Khat (aka Chat, Catha Edulis), a popular amphetamine-like stimulant.The Francis brothers were prompted to make their first film when it was announced at the end of 2002 that Ethiopia faced yet another devastating famine. Despite a booming worldwide coffee industry, worth in excess of $80 billion, Ethiopian coffee farmers are facing bankruptcy, extreme poverty and starvation. The Francis brothers spent two and half years following Meskela on his worldwide travels to secure buyers for his co-operative’s world class coffee at a fair price.
Black Gold is an affecting, galvanising and deeply informative documentary without becoming overtly political and dogmatic.
Mark and Nick Francis have achieved their aim to make a film that exposes the audience to the ugly truth behind each cappuccino and the miserable existence of the human beings exploited for a latte.