On Monday the 23rd November one half of the director/producer team that made the award winning film Black Gold, Nick Francis, will be taking part in a film evening at Cafe Diplo alongside Tipping Point Film Fund co-founder Deborah Burton.

As westerners revel in designer lattes and cappuccinos, impoverished farmers in Ethiopia, where 15 million people depend on coffee growing for their survival, hover on the brink of destitution. In their documentary Black Gold director and producer Nick Francis provides an eye-opening expose of the $80 billion dollar coffee industry, now the most valuable trading commodity in the world after oil.

The film traces the efforts of one man, Tadesse Maskada, to achieve a fair price for the exploited African farmers who support it. Against the backdrop of his journey to London and Seattle, the enormous power of the multinational players that dominate the world’s coffee trade becomes apparent. Deborah Burton is the co-founder of our very own Tipping Point Film Fund which (as you know) raises money to support independent film-makers, and she was involved in the production of Black Gold.  Following the film showing, Nick and Deborah will respond to a Q&A from the floor.

Friends of Le Monde Diplomatique is a UK-based affiliate of the Les Amis Le Monde Diplomatique which supports the writings and tradition which has evolved over 50 years of publication of the Le Monde Diplomatique Newspaper. The Cafe Diplo meetings are held at The Gallery, Farringdon on selected Monday evenings. The sessions give an opportunity for lively debate between speakers and audience.