Brothers Nick and Marc Francis wrote, directed and produced the acclaimed docu-film Black Gold which looks at the ethical issues behind one of the world’s most valuable commodities; coffee. In what The Telegraph have called the film’s “moving but scandalous story”, the brothers follow Tadesse Meskela, General Manager of the Oromia Coffee Farmers Co-operative Union as he strives to save the 74,000 Ethiopian coffee farmers he represents from bankruptcy at the hands of an unforgiving global marketplace.

In the interview, Katie Derham talks to the brothers about why they made the film, the global scale of coffee related poverty, if there’s such a thing as “ethical coffee” and the possible solutions to the problem including fair trade, subsidies, co-operatives and consumer awareness.

Marc and Nick Francis are UK based independent documentary filmmakers whose previous work includes Nuke UK ; a film for Channel 4 about a group anti-nuclear protestors; the ITV series St. Dunstans about the institution near Brighton that cares for blind ex-armed forces personnel and Hyde Park about an inner-city community in Leeds.

Black Gold official website http://www.blackgoldmovie.com

Oromia Coffee Farmers Co-operative Union http://www.greendevelopment.nl/progreso/ocfcu/

Nick and Marc interviewed by Ethical Consumer magazine http://www.ethicalconsumer.org/magazine/press/2007/blackgold.htm