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.
Comment
06/08/07
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Black Gold (2006)
85
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:48
Fresh:41
Rotten:7
Average Rating:6.9/10
Consensus: Black Gold is an eye-opening account of the winners and losers in the global coffee trade.
Theatrical Release:Oct 6, 2006 Limited
Synopsis: In an increasingly global economy, where the profit margins of huge multinational coffee companies continue to rise, prices paid for coffee harvests have reached an all-time low, forcing farmers in... [More]
Director: Mark Francis, Nick Francis
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Reviews for Black Gold
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.
06/08/07
Black Gold is more an Al Gore-style message of hope than a total downer.
10/06/06
Top Critic... there is an additional irony to the title: The raw beans are not themselves black, but the growers are.
01/11/07
... a by turns poetic and hard-hitting critique of the global coffee industry ...
12/07/06
If you don't buy Fair Trade coffee after this you never will.
06/08/07
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?
06/12/07
Black Gold moves at an inexorable pace, painstakingly building a case until suddenly it looms very large and casts an even longer shadow.
01/11/07
Top Critic...gorgeously-shot, melancholy.
08/31/06
Punctuated by long shots of foggy mountainsides as well as very close shots of glistening green coffee beans on the tree, the film makes its argument with the help of an evocative score by Andreas Kapsalis.
12/21/06
More dynamism and knowledge in the telling and fewer cheap shots at young Starbucks workers in Seattle wouldn’t have gone amiss.
10/28/06
True, fair trade coffee is not the newest story around, but Black Gold still makes for arresting viewing.
06/08/07
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.
06/08/07
A film to think about every time you order a Triple Grande Soy Latte.
08/18/06
It almost makes you want to be forced to spend six bucks for a latte.
10/06/06
A hard-hitting documentary in support of Fair Trade focusing on the tireless efforts of a manager of a coffee grower's cooperative in Ethiopia to get members more money for their labors.
11/05/06
If that $2 cup of Starbucks didn't jolt you awake, this documentary by Marc and Nick Francis might do the trick.
01/12/07
There is obviously a serious imbalance here and even if the filmmakers don't get the complete picture, they at least make a case for the farmers themselves.
08/04/06
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.
10/27/06
Black Gold, a compelling documentary about the international coffee industry, might discourage you from ever drinking a cup of joe again. At the very least, it'll make you think deeply about what's going into that cup.
08/04/06
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