Black Gold, February 23

Introduced by George Scharffenberger

George Scharffenberger is the recently appointed executive director of UC Berkeley's Blum Center for Developing Economies.

The economics of coffee are set percolating in the Francis brothers' mesmerizing lesson on unfair trade. While Ethiopian bean growers work in near-starvation conditions, multinational coffee companies reap the profits of one of the world's most valuable trading commodities. Tadesse Meskela, the soft-spoken representative of the Oromo Coffee Farmers Co-op Union of southern Ethiopia, leads the viewer along the path from crop to cup as he searches for importers willing to pay a fair price for his farmers' high-quality beans. Meanwhile, in stark contrast to Meskela's tireless one-man quest, the coffee cultists of the developed world sip their overpriced espresso and African trade ministers taste the bitter brew of exclusion at the 2003 World Trade Organization meeting in Cancun. With poetic compositions and sobering statistics, Black Gold interrogates the problem of developing Africa's export trade, and concludes with a startling challenge.

—Lucy Laird

• Photographed by the Francises. (78 mins, in English, Oromifa, and Amharic with English subtitles, Color, Beta SP, Courtesy California Newsreel)

Preceded by short:
Punam (Lucian Muntean, Natasa Stankovic, Serbia, 2005). Nine years old and caretaker of her two siblings, Punam is determined to overcome the circumstances that compel her friends to work in the quarries of Bhaktapur, Nepal. (28 mins, In Nepali and Tamang with English subtitles, Color, Beta SP)

• (Total running time: 106 mins)