Last night the annual film festival opened in Wellington. It couldn’t have come at a better time given that we’ve been battling weeks of non-stop rain, wind, and generally miserable weather. I went to the Penthouse theater in Courtney Place to catch a documentary film about the global trade in coffee called Black Gold. Disarm had screened in the same festival as this film a few weeks ago in Jackson Hole, but I never got a chance to see it. After premiering at Sundance Black Gold has since been hitting all the major festivals, a list that I guess includes the NZ Film Fest???

After the screening we dragged the visiting filmmaker, a Brit named Nick Francis, down to the street through a hailstorm to our offices for a talk about Fair Trade. The David versus Goliath tale profiles the work of Tedasse, an Ethiopian coffee exporter, as he attempts to overcome all the barriers to get a decent price for his farmer’s coffee. The film provides a brilliant avenue for Oxfam to raise issues about unfair trade rules and explain terms like subsidies and tarriffs that normally put people to sleep. It should open in theaters across the UK and US later this year. So please see it! Check out their site: www.blackgoldmovie.com