Black Gold struggled to be funded yet went on to achieve impact at various levels from changing basic consumer behaviour to challenging corporate practice; from energising campaigners to reaching opinion-formers on wider trade debate issues. It was released in 2007, followed by a successful international DVD release and TV sales worldwide. It had two screenings on UK’s Channel 4. It’s World Première was at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival and was seen in over 60 international film festivals.

Features and reports have appeared on TV, radio and in print including CNN, BBC, Al-Jazeera, Bloomberg, Washington Post, La Times, New York Times, The Guardian, The London Times, Daily Telegraph, South China Morning Post as well as a host of lifestyle business, film, consumer, and food/drink publications from Mexico to Sydney. Hundreds of thousands of people have visited the website of the film to find out more and take part in the forum

Social Impact

Black Gold’s cinematic, broadcast, and media success is only one part of the film’s ongoing impact. Since the release, Tadesse Meskela’s coffee has increased in price from $1.45/lb to a minimum of $2.30/lb, and his Union has tripled the amount of money being paid back to 130,000 farmers. For the first time, large multinational coffee companies like Nestle, Kraft and Starbucks were brought under the international spotlight by a feature-documentary. Some have had to respond to questions live on television and radio about their pricing policies. Additionally, Black Gold was used by the Ethiopian Intellectual Property Office to campaign to Starbucks to recognise the intellectual property rights of Ethiopian coffees.

Screenings and debates about trade policy and development have taken place in important political institutions including; the World Bank in Washington, EU in Brussels, and the UN in New York, and the House of Commons in London where Tadesse Meskela was invited to 10 Downing Street to deliver his message directly to former Prime Minister Tony Blair