Coffee doc: too weak

By Peter Howell, Movie Critic
August 4, 2006

Nowhere is the gap between capitalist greed and Third World need more pertinent than in the international coffee industry, through which the affluent enjoy a beverage provided by starving farmers paid nothing close to a living wage.

The British doc Black Gold, by Nick and Marc Francis, tracks coffee production from fields in Ethiopia to Starbucks and other Western caffeine chains.

The film asks why just one or two cents of the $3 to $4 per cup that Americans, Canadians and Europeans pay for quality coffee go to the bean farmers.

The filmmakers watch as Tadesse Meskela, from a coffee farmers' co-op in Ethiopia, tries to get a raise for the 75,000 impoverished farmers he represents. Meskela tells some farmers how much their product sells for in North America, and their jaws drop in wonder.

Black Gold is nowhere near as probing as it could or should be. Valuable points are blunted by too many talking heads. The strongest statement comes when a gung-ho Starbucks manager rhapsodizes about "all the lives we've touched" by selling trendy coffee drinks. That's followed by a scene of young Ethiopian famine victims being nursed at a therapeutic feeding centre. Such images are enough to put you off your morning java, but Black Gold too often simmers when it should instead scald.