Black Gold

Released Oct 6, 2006

1h 17m

Documentary

List

84%

Tomatometer

50 Reviews

84%

Audience Score

1,000+ Ratings

Fifteen million Ethiopians make a living related to coffee, which accounts for 67 percent of the country's foreign exports. Yet as profits soar for coffee sales, the farmers producing the beans continue to receive minimal payments, anywhere from 12 to 25 cents for every kilo picked. Businessman Tadesse Meskela tries to help raise the impoverished standard of living by negotiating, on behalf of 70,000 farmers, with coffee roasters willing to pay a fairer price for their labor.

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Critics Consensus

Black Gold is an eye-opening account of the winners and losers in the global coffee trade.

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Wendy Ide

Times (UK)

While the film is quick to posit fair trade as a solution, it fails to answer why, even with Meskela's admirable initiatives, his coffee farmers still struggle to buy shoes.

Rated: 3/5

Jun 8, 2007

Full Review

Anthony Quinn

Independent (UK)

If you don't buy Fair Trade coffee after this you never will.

Rated: 3/5

Jun 8, 2007

Full Review

David Mattin

BBC.com

True, fair trade coffee is not the newest story around, but Black Gold still makes for arresting viewing.

Rated: 3/5

Jun 8, 2007

Full Review

Matthew Turner

ViewLondon

Rated: 2/5

Feb 23, 2012

Full Review

Jennie Kermode

Eye for Film

Rated: 3.5/5

Dec 7, 2007

Full Review

Anton Bitel

musicOMH.com

It is attractively shot, thoughtfully edited, provocatively argued, and might just have you turning its issues over in your mind late into the night - or is that just the effect of so much coffee?

Rated: 4/5

Jun 12, 2007

Full Review

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Audience Member

The Pre-Cursor Conversation To Fair-Trade Becoming A Standard Stamp On All Coffee Sold Worldwide. It Made Me Think Of All The Other Drug-Addicts (Speed, Heroin, Cocaine What-Have-U) Around The World ALSO Getting Ripped Off Because End-Users Can't Band Together & Demand A Fair Price On Product!! Hehehe..Pity Only Legal Addictions Have Legal Rights.. ;-)

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

02/21/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Well-produced, but all the images of poverty were not enough to make me forget basic macroeconomics.

Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars

02/11/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Interesting insight of how much the first world nation is ripping off the poor again! Please buy fair trade coffees!!

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/06/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Interesting look at the discrepancy between coffee price at retail and how much makes it back to the farmers. Insightful focus on Ethiopia.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

01/11/23

Full Review

walter m

"Black Gold" is an earnest documentary about an attempt to raise the prices paid to coffee farmers in Ethopia who are paid cents on the dollars. What the documentary does especially well is demolish the notion that paying farmers more will result in higher prices here in the West. Tadesse Meskela who manages a cooperative union has a simple idea to just eliminate the middleman and bring the product directly to markets in the West. Of course, that's not as easy as it sounds since the coffee market is controlled mostly by four multinationals, Kraft, Nestle, Proctor & Gamble and Sara Lee, with prices being set in New York and London while the World Trade Organization works behind closed doors to the benefit of western countries. Tadesse Meskela's hard work is absolutely necessary to make the coffee farmers self-sufficient due to the dangerously low standard of living in rural Ethiopia, as there is not enough money currently for even basic services including education. But in trying to educate the viewer about its cause, the documentary dumps all of the relevant information early on, instead of forming a narrative following the coffee from harvest to brewing to drinking. Information could have been better provided throughout with a judicious use of talking heads. In fact, the approach "Black Gold" takes is haphazard at times with some strange tangents like the World Barista Championships as the documentary misses a valuable opportunity to educate when it talks to the baristas in Seattle. And sometimes a little confrontation is good for the soul

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

Audience Member

An incredible documentary & eye opener. We can see the poverty and miserable conditions of the Ethiopian farmer. They hope for the same things everyone wants. Better living conditions, education, medical care and most important food to feed their families & decent wages.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

01/30/23

Full Review

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Marc Francis

Director

Nick Francis

Director

Tadesse Meskela

Actor

Marc Francis

Writer

Sally Jo Fifer

Executive Producer

Christopher Hird

Executive Producer

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Synopsis

Fifteen million Ethiopians make a living related to coffee, which accounts for 67 percent of the country's foreign exports. Yet as profits soar for coffee sales, the farmers producing the beans continue to receive minimal payments, anywhere from 12 to 25 cents for every kilo picked. Businessman Tadesse Meskela tries to help raise the impoverished standard of living by negotiating, on behalf of 70,000 farmers, with coffee roasters willing to pay a fairer price for their labor.

Director: Marc Francis, Nick Francis
Producer: Sally Jo Fifer, Christopher Hird
Screenwriter: Marc Francis
Distributor: California Newsreel
Production Co: Speak-It Productions
Genre: Documentary
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Oct 6, 2006, Limited
Release Date (DVD): Jan 9, 2007
Box Office (Gross USA): $93.5K
Runtime: 1h 17m