The Fair Trade label extends to a great deal of coffees from around the world; Brazil, Columbia, Peru, Ecuador, Guatemala, Haiti, Kenya, Tanzania, East Timor, Sri Lanka or Vietnam. Fair Trade coffee is also a solution to bring Ethiopian coffee farmers out of the trap of aid and into world trade. The latest documentary film; Black Goldaddress the imperative of supporting farmers from the motherland of coffee, Ethiopia. There is much passion behind the people of Fair Trade and Black Gold brings this drive to the screen. Filmmakers Marc and Nick Francis follow the travels of Tadesse Meskela, an Ethiopian coffee farmers union leader, in his fight for fair trade. The film reveals the gaps of equality, like potholes in the trade route of the coffee bean.
While these Ethiopian farmers relish in the high grade of the coffee beans, they are steeply underpaid because of global trade markets. The Stock Exchange dictates coffee prices through the Starbucks of the world, but overlooks the human element that brings the crop to life. This sad situation, so rampant in our world, is one constantly beaten over our heads through documentaries and grassroots organizations. Oxfam, the global Human Rights organization, is one such group, but within their support of Black Gold take a creative angle rarely seen. It aspires to a level of documentary filmmaking achieved by Erik Gandini’s anti-consumption work Surplus, though less abstract. It is found in Black Gold by the ability of transparency and slight objectivism from the filmmakers. It is clearly a film in favor of Fair Trade and sympathetic to the coffee farmers, but their voices are heard individually in contrast to depicted images of greed in world trade.
Selected at 5 major film festivals, including Sundance, Black Gold captures the sweeping landscapes of Ethiopia, as well as its poverty. The cinematography is visually interesting in that it also distances Western viewers from the farmers through these landscapes and their language. Our only guide to this world is through Tadesse Meskela, who translates their words and their hearts. In contrast there are close ups of people sipping Starbucks, the barsitas and a glut of middlemen in the coffee bean chain. Scenes of the dizzying floor at the NY Stock exchange reinforce the smoke and mirrors that keep consumers distanced from coffee farmers. Whether an intended effect or not, it captures what Fair Trade labels and organizations want to eliminate, bringing the farmer’s bean closer to the consumer’s cup.
The documentary further achieves an entertaining experience by avoiding the talking head interviews that often suck the life out of cinema. The filmmakers are at the table in union meetings, in the fields with farmers, on the road with Tadesse Meskela and on the floor at factories. Footage of the International Barista competition or at the Illy Coffee factory in Italy is a treat for any coffee lover, making the interviews genuine and scenic. The primal heartbeat provided by the soundtrack of Ethiopian music is also a soothing coat to a hard message to swallow. This message is what we are faced with as consumers, not so much to stop buying coffee because of corrupt trade, but the proactive choice of fair trade.
Ethiopia is the best symbol of this dilemma, not just because it is the motherland of coffee, but due to the country’s famine and poverty. A downpour of international aid cannot cure systemic poverty; it is trade equality that will carry the greatest benefit. The Fair Trade labeling organization of the US, TransFair USA, attests to the exponential benefits seen in many South American countries. A majority of the world’s coffee comes from countries like Brazil and also throughout the mountainous growing regions of the south. Here cooperatives that build Fair Trade programs with buyers, reap the rewards of higher profits into community and infrastructure. In Black Gold, as we watch Tadesse Meskela talk with Ethiopian coffee farmers, it becomes a shared hope that they too will gain from the equalizing endeavors of Fair Trade.
There are many poignant scenes in Black Gold and the message rings across clear, though questions still arise. They only touch upon the drastic role the World Trade Organization (WTO), as well as the element of systemic poverty. As the world’s second most widely traded commodity, coffee has a bewildering trail too vast to ponder over a cup of coffee. Though if the millions of daily coffee drinkers gave it a thought just once, the benefits of Fair Trade could reveal itself one cup at a time.
