March 7 "Black Gold" @ Starz FilmCenter

On Wednesday, March 7, the Denver Film Society will show "Black Gold" as part of its Community Cinema series. Seeing as how the guitarhero and I are addicted to our morning cup(s) o' joe, I have a feeling that this is something I should see. From the website:

Wednesday, March 7th - 7:00pm - FREE!

Multinational coffee companies rule our shopping malls and supermarkets and dominate an 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 75,000 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 commodities traders, the international coffee exchanges, and the double dealings of trade ministers at the World Trade Organization reveal the many challenges Tadesse faces in his quest for a long term solution for his farmers.

Directed by Nick Francis and Marc Francis
(USA, 2006, Not Rated, Digital, 78 min)
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Oxfam America has partnered with the US distributors of Black Gold to provide film viewers with opportunities to learn more about the international coffee crisis, and to take actions that address the plight of the impoverished coffee farmers in Ethiopia and other coffee-producing countries. For more information, visit Oxfam America's coffee campaign.
http://www.oxfamamerica.org/whatwedo/campaigns/coffee

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