Aaron Dennis and Chelsea Bay Dennis's enlightening documentary offers an eye-opening behind-the-scenes look at the real world of coffee—some 25 million people across the globe grow coffee beans—exploring the methods by which beans are nurtured and harvested, while also detailing the long history of exploitation and oppression endured by independent coffee farmers. Here, a team of American progressive activists visit Southern Mexico and elsewhere, observing the painstaking process by which small farmers develop beans until they are mature enough to be picked and processed (washing, drying, etc.). But Connected By Coffee goes well beyond simply serving up an agriculture lesson as it looks at the painful history of coffee farmers being intimidated and controlled by large corporations, i.e., the “middle men” who buy coffee beans very cheaply from farmers and sell them to manufacturers at an enormous profit. Subject to violence and even murder in the 1990s, coffee farmers banded together in cooperatives, helping one another in business and bargaining with manufacturers directly. The farmers interviewed here speak of these cooperatives with a certain reverence—not only because the groups bring power in numbers, but also because these local collectives allow growers to hold onto their cultural, social, and spiritual values. Highly recommended. Aud C, P. (T. Keogh)
Connected By Coffee
(2014) 70 min. In English & Spanish w/English subtitles. DVD: $20: individuals; $295: public libraries. Stone Hut Studios. PPR. Volume 29, Issue 5
Connected By Coffee
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