Black Gold

Black Gold was featured in ITVS’s landmark Community Cinema program, which produced community outreach screenings in 30 cities during March 2007. All screenings were conducted between 10 and 60 days prior to the film’s scheduled national broadcast on Independent Lens and focused on fair trade and fair price issues, sustainability and human rights. Black Gold screenings welcomed more than 2,200 community members to local events across the nation, which included special guest speakers and panel discussions with local experts, entrepreneurs and community leaders. ITVS produced companion discussion guides to support the screenings and for use by viewers at home; more than 10,000 were downloaded or distributed.

More than 100 community-based and national organizations partnered with ITVS to engage audiences with the film. In Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington, DC and Chicago, a sizeable turnout from the Ethiopian American community attended events. Screening participants were offered tastings of fair-trade coffee through local cafes and partners like Equal Exchange; Busboys and Poets in DC offered fair-trade certification comparison charts which were quickly snatched up by audience members eager to educate themselves on their purchasing choices. Most audience members walked away from the events vowing to make more informed decisions when purchasing coffee in the future.