Su Friedrich's From the Ground Up offers a cinéma vérité look at the origin of a cup of coffee sold from a Manhattan pushcart. The veteran documentary filmmaker travels from Central America to South Carolina to New York City, capturing the various stages of coffee bean growing, processing (shelling, roasting, grinding, etc.), and eventual sale of the black gold to international buyers. Although the film means to illustrate how something we take for granted in the United States—a cup of coffee—often has its genesis in an underdeveloped country on the backs of laborers paid about $3 a day to pick beans (indeed, the most powerful part of the film is footage of men, women, and children filling enormous sacks with beans while men with guns stand around observing), the dearth of narration or explanation will leave viewers wondering about what they are actually seeing (why the armed guards?). More commentary and less frequent use of the overplayed song “Java Jive” on the soundtrack would have made this a more illuminating documentary. DVD extras include a PDF study guide. Not a necessary purchase. Aud: C, P. (T. Keogh)
From the Ground Up
(2008) 54 min. DVD: $24.95 ($50 w/PPR). Microcinema International (avail. from most distributors). PPR. Closed captioned. Volume 23, Issue 5
From the Ground Up
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