Do you want to see ‘Black Gold’?

Black Gold (2006)

tomatometer

All Critics
Top Critics

Average Rating: 6.8/10
Reviews Counted: 48
Fresh: 40 | Rotten: 8

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

Average Rating: 6.7/10
Critic Reviews: 16
Fresh: 13 | Rotten: 3

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

audience

liked it
Average Rating: 3.9/5
User Ratings: 1,783

My Rating

Added to your Facebook Timeline. — undo

Movie Info

Filmmakers Marc and Nick Francis team to explore the discrepancy between the skyrocketing profits of multinational coffee companies and the all-time low prices paid for coffee harvests in a documentary that aims to provide a voice to the struggling farmers and laborers who strive to keep the coffee flowing. As devastated farmers are forced to sell off their once-bountiful lands simply to make ends meet, Ethiopia's once-thriving coffee industry slowly falls to ruin; but one man is out to fight

Unrated, 1 hr. 17 min.

Documentary, Special Interest

Directed By: Marc Francis , Nick Francis

In Theaters: Oct 6, 2006 Wide

On DVD: Apr 27, 2010

California Newsreel

Black Gold Trailer & Photos

More Photos (6)

Cast

Critic Reviews for Black Gold

All Critics (53) | Top Critics (19) | Fresh (41) | Rotten (8) | DVD (1)

If that $2 cup of Starbucks didn't jolt you awake, this documentary by Marc and Nick Francis might do the trick.

January 12, 2007 Full Review Source: Chicago Reader

| Comment

J. R. Jones

Chicago Reader

Top Critic

Black Gold moves at an inexorable pace, painstakingly building a case until suddenly it looms very large and casts an even longer shadow.

January 11, 2007 Full Review Source: Los Angeles Times

| Comment

Carina Chocano

Los Angeles Times

Top Critic

... a by turns poetic and hard-hitting critique of the global coffee industry ...

December 7, 2006 Full Review Source: Washington Post

| Comment

Ann Hornaday

Washington Post

Top Critic

The lesson is clear: The system is broken and needs repair, and educating consumers is part of the solution.

November 17, 2006 Full Review Source: San Francisco Chronicle

| Comment

Walter V. Addiego

San Francisco Chronicle

Top Critic

This is a documentary that gets a lot across while avoiding cliches and easy exploitation, even in famine-ravaged places where more horrific images must have abounded.

October 27, 2006 Full Review Source: Boston Globe

| Comment

Janice Page

Boston Globe

Top Critic

Guaranteed to make you think twice about what you're paying for what you're drinking.

October 12, 2006 Full Review Source: Chicago Tribune

| Comment

Michael Phillips

Chicago Tribune

Top Critic

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?

June 12, 2007 Full Review Source: musicOMH.com

| Comment

Anton Bitel

musicOMH.com

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.

June 8, 2007 Full Review Source: Times [UK]

| Comment

Wendy Ide

Times [UK]

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

June 8, 2007 Full Review Source: Independent

| Comment

Anthony Quinn

Independent

A worthy look at an exploitation that really shouldn't exist in this day and age, Black Gold will hopefully shock audiences into looking for the Fairtrade symbol next time they're in the supermarket.

June 8, 2007 Full Review Source: Film4

| Comment

Laura Bushell

Film4

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

June 8, 2007 Full Review Source: BBC

| Comment

David Mattin

BBC

Contrast that with shots of the grower's malnourished children relying on emergency foreign aid and it's enough to make your blood boil - never mind the coffee.

June 8, 2007 Full Review Source: Daily Mirror [UK]

| Comment

Daily Mirror [UK]

Intimate interviews with starving farmers selling beans for 24p a kilo while we pay 2 a cup will make you appreciate the importance of fair-trade when ordering your next double-shot, skinny latte.

June 8, 2007 Full Review Source: Total Film

| Comment

Total Film

While it may prompt some to think again next time they're in Starbucks, this astute insight into the coffee business is better at lauding the good guys than taking the multinationals to task for the iniquities of the global economy.

June 8, 2007 Full Review Source: Empire Magazine

| Comment

David Parkinson

Empire Magazine

The Francis brothers maintain a lively pace and a satirical mood.

March 1, 2007 Full Review Source: Film Journal International

| Comment

Maria Garcia

Film Journal International

An important and timely film that may make you think twice before downing your next cup of joe.

January 13, 2007 Comment

Timothy Knight

Reel.com

Whether due to resources or time or just plain laziness, directors Marc and Nick Francis have fashioned a rather shapeless movie that raises many good points but fails to fully investigate its findings.

January 12, 2007 Full Review Source: Los Angeles Daily News

| Comment

Glenn Whipp

Los Angeles Daily News

... there is an additional irony to the title: The raw beans are not themselves black, but the growers are.

January 11, 2007 Comment

Andy Klein

Los Angeles CityBeat Source: Los Angeles CityBeat

More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for Black Gold

View All

"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

April 13, 2011

Walter M.

Super Reviewer

Interesting argument for raising the price of coffee paid to farmers, by looking at a co-operative in Ethiopia. The sections talking to baristas and other people in service, though a good addition to the film, felt a bit disjointed. It would have been interesting to see production in other countries than Ethiopia for

March 20, 2010

meril lupin

Super Reviewer

Black Gold Quotes

View All

No quotes approved yet for Black Gold. Logged in users can submit quotes.

Character	Quote
	Enter quote here...	Delete

DVD

Top Rentals

54%	Safe House
29%	The Vow
94%	Mission: Impossible Ghost Protoc...
28%	Underworld Awakening
85%	Chronicle

More…

New On DVD This Week

54%	Safe House
42%	Journey 2: The Mysterious Island
52%	John Carter
25%	Act of Valor
29%	Machine Gun Preacher

More…

Movies Like Black Gold

Day of the Dead

View All

Latest News for Black Gold

October 5, 2006:

Critical Consensus: "Departed" Is Best Reviewed Wide Release of 2006
This week at the movies, we've got cops and robbers in Boston ("The Departed," starring...

View All