An exploration of the global coffee industry (worth over $80 billion a year) provides the impetus for Black Gold, a politically direct and vital documentary from filmmakers Marc and Nick Francis which will certainly leave viewers with plenty to stew on when next ordering a latte or cappuccino. As profits for multinational coffee companies continue to increase, the price paid for coffee harvests have fallen to such an extent that farmers in some of the world's poorest countries are forced to abandon their crops. Ethiopia, recognised as the birthplace of coffee, is one of the hardest hit countries, and the film follows Tadesse Meskela, General Manager of a co-operative union that represents some 70,000 struggling Ethiopian farmers, as he goes on an international campaign to promote the plight of his members and seek to establish a fair trade market for their produce. The journey brings him into the offices of coffee giants Nestlé and Kraft, who seek to maintain low prices for beans; to the coffee commodity exchanges in New York and London, where daily prices are set; and to a branch of Starbucks, illustrating how the customers' demand for coffee has grown in the last decade.