I'm watching the movie "Black Gold" at the 7 Stages theater. (Film started 15 minutes ago) Black Gold is a 2006 documentary film about the international coffee trade and its ramifications for the farmers who grow coffee.

As usual, I'll update this post throughout the event.

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16:20 EST: Difficult to blog. The theater has a good wi-fi connection, but the movie is so fascinating it's hard to write.

16:25 EST: The movie bounces between the growers who suffer deeply to produce coffee and how coffee culture is marketed in the US. For example, a scene where an Ethiopian complains how he breaks his back and is trapped in poverty... is then juxtaposed with a breif interview of a bubbly Starbucks manager. In a way - I feel like I'm watching two movies.

16:31 EST: Learning about the drug "Khat", and how farmers have to grow the drug to survive.

16:43 EST: Movie is now pointing out how the WTO is unfair to smaller countries because richer countries can send more delegates, and much of the deals are done behind closed doors. In effect, poor countries don't get to negotiate and are little more than observers.

16:50 EST: I've never seen a documentary that showed how closely the commodities market affects the lives of workers.

16:52 EST: Heartwarming scene where Tadesse Meskela, the General Manager of the Oromia Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union in Ethopia, suggests the money raised from fair traded coffee be used to built a school.

17:00 EST: Movie ends by pointing out that if Africa could get it's market share up by 1%, it would generate five times more money than all the foreign aid currently being sent to Africa.

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