Dirty Gold
Jonathan Conell
Issue date: 3/1/10 Section: Entertainment
Can a person who dislikes the taste and even the smell of coffee learn something from a documentary movie about coffee? The movie Black Gold, shown on the second night of the annual Global Issues Film Festival, demonstrates that the answer is "yes." Black Gold presents a multilevel view of the coffee industry, including the farmers in Ethiopia, the numerous levels of middlemen, and the consumers. The stunning magnitude of the industry is evidenced by the two billion cups of coffee consumed each day worldwide. Coffee comprises 67 percent of Ethiopia's exports. Although a Starbucks customer may pay as much as $5 for a cup of coffee, a farmer in Ethiopia is paid only pennies per kilo, which makes about 80 cups of coffee. However, this movie goes far beyond a mere itemization of statistics; it delves into the roles and souls of the players in the coffee industry.
Consumers are represented by customers at an Italian café whose faces glow with ecstasy as they consume tiny, potent cups of coffee with an air of deep religious fervor. American Starbucks customers gleefully sip samples while touring the original Starbucks café and listen to an enthusiastic store manager, who appears to exhibit the effects of caffeine overdose. Competitors for brewing the best cup of coffee are as fierce and well-trained as Roman gladiators, and the winner's face shows as much arrogance as the legendary King Gilgamesh.
Layers of middlemen are almost exclusively seen with stony faces and inalterable agendas. Corporate giants in the coffee industry include the well-known names of Starbucks, Kraft Foods, Procter & Gamble, Sara Lee, and Nestlé. Coffee is traded as a commodity in New York where the prices are set by hornless devils that aggressively gesticulate to keep the purchase price down and their profits up. The expressionless, well-dressed exporters and importers demonstrate that trading coffee is a business that allows them a comfortable living; in their minds, coffee is a commodity with no connection to the farmer. In Black Gold, the coordinator of an Ethiopian farmers' cooperative is the only middleman that shows a passion for helping the farmers. With gentle enthusiasm, he manifests the understanding that a successful business network requires a content farmer.
Consumers are represented by customers at an Italian café whose faces glow with ecstasy as they consume tiny, potent cups of coffee with an air of deep religious fervor. American Starbucks customers gleefully sip samples while touring the original Starbucks café and listen to an enthusiastic store manager, who appears to exhibit the effects of caffeine overdose. Competitors for brewing the best cup of coffee are as fierce and well-trained as Roman gladiators, and the winner's face shows as much arrogance as the legendary King Gilgamesh.
Layers of middlemen are almost exclusively seen with stony faces and inalterable agendas. Corporate giants in the coffee industry include the well-known names of Starbucks, Kraft Foods, Procter & Gamble, Sara Lee, and Nestlé. Coffee is traded as a commodity in New York where the prices are set by hornless devils that aggressively gesticulate to keep the purchase price down and their profits up. The expressionless, well-dressed exporters and importers demonstrate that trading coffee is a business that allows them a comfortable living; in their minds, coffee is a commodity with no connection to the farmer. In Black Gold, the coordinator of an Ethiopian farmers' cooperative is the only middleman that shows a passion for helping the farmers. With gentle enthusiasm, he manifests the understanding that a successful business network requires a content farmer.
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