BLACK GOLD

The second installment of the documentary series Mala Siembra, about film and food sovereignty- a topic so indispensable in our social agendas due to its urgency- which aims to bring the debate up to date. Multinationals dominate international coffee trade, which is the second-most profitable product after oil. The low prices paid to the producers are forcing more and more growers off their land, and nowhere is this more evident than in Ethiopia, the birthplace of coffee. Tadesse Meskela, the General Manager of the Oromia Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union, is a man with a mission: keeping 74,000 coffee growers out of bankruptcy.
  While the growers produce with care one of the highest quality coffee beans, Tadesse travels around the world circumventing intermediaries and on his own trying to find buyers who will pay a fair price for the coffee from his region. The immense power that multinationals weild in coffee trade becomes apparent, with Tadesse's trips to London and Seattle as a backdrop. New York traders, international coffee exchanges and the double agenda of the World Trade Organization's ministers reveal the many challenges Tadesse faces on his quest to find a solution for the growers.
  Our screening of Black Gold will finish with a presentation by the photographer and art critic Natalia Maya.