Marc & Nick Francis’ BLACK GOLD premieres at Sundance 2006
Screen South-supported filmmakers Marc and Nick Francis of Speak-it Productions in Brighton have just returned from the world premiere of their film BLACK GOLD at the Sundance Film Festival in the USA, and it was an incredible 10 days of screenings, interviews and parties.
It started off with the Directors brunch at the Sundance village, where Hollywood legend and Festival Founder Robert Redford passionately explained why he continues to be so committed to supporting independent film.
The five screenings from January 20th-29th were sold out, each generating queues of over 100 people. The two brothers were amazed by the turnout and people kept telling them that BLACK GOLD was the talk of the town. To keep the spirit of the film alive, Marc and Nick had hooked up with a local coffee roaster who served free Ethiopian coffee featured in the film to people in the ticket queues.
Says Marc:
“The Q&A sessions were lively and people seemed fascinated and keen to find out more. At the world premiere one member of the audience wrote out a $10,000 cheque to the Coffee Union run by the main character in the film to assist with the building of a new school.
Starbucks sent their people to every screening and press released the media, even though BLACK GOLD isn’t specifically about Starbucks; it’s about how coffee farmers are losing out in a multi-billion dollar coffee industry.”
Director Marc Francis has been supported by Screen South over the last two years to develop the project’s feature potential. Marc joined the Screen South European Documentary ‘Bourse de Co-Production’ in Lille, France, in 2004 and was also selected to take part in the Screen South LA Trade and Talent Mission the same year. BLACK GOLD received a further £6000 completion funding from Screen South at the end of 2005, enabling final festival preparation.
Says Jo Nolan, Screen South CEO:
“I am absolutely delighted to see that Marc and Nick’s documentary has created such a great response at Sundance. It is very important that Screen South is able to get behind directors like Marc, he understands the politics and passion in important stories like BLACK GOLD and these films are not always easy to finance. The success of recent issue-driven features clearly shows that there is a market for these films and we look forward to continuing our support for the Francis brothers along with other regional documentary makers who have something unique to say”.
By the end of the festival BLACK GOLD had generated a lot of interest from distributors and is now in the hands of their sales agent. BLACK GOLD will now be screening in more international festivals over the next few months. Check out the film’s website and sign up to the BLACK GOLD newsletter at www.blackgoldmovie.com to keep up to date!
BLACK GOLD is an alarming and timely feature-length documentary about the global coffee industry, where the spoils of overpriced lattes and cappucinos are sparsely shared with the people who produce it. From Ethiopian bean to Starbucks’ cup, we meet coffee drinkers, tasting experts, baristas, and coffee traders and visit the sweatshop production lines, auction houses and roasting plants around the world. The film’s main character is Tadesse Meskela who fights to save his Ethiopian coffee farmers from bankruptcy– taking on not just the coffee industry, but also the world trading system.
The last year has been both an exciting and challenging one for Marc and Nick Francis. BLACK GOLD entered its second year of production and with it came some new developments and opportunities. Highlights included an insightful trip with Screen South on their UKTI-supported trade mission to LA in November 2004 where Marc met up with US distribution companies behind releases such as Farenheit 9/11, Touching the Void, and Super Size Me.
Subsequently, completion funding for the documentary was secured from the Sundance Institute Documentary Fund. BLACK GOLD was one of fourteen projects to be selected by the fund. Dedicated to supporting U.S. and international documentary films that focus on current human rights issues, freedom of expression, social justice, and civil liberties, the fund was established at the Sundance Institute in 2002 by a gift from the Open Society Institute. The Sundance Institute Documentary Fund grants are announced twice a year and since its inception at the Institute, the Fund has disbursed over $2 million to 84 projects.
The completion funding from the Sundance Institute enabled Marc and Nick to finish filming some key scenes in the US, Italy and Ethiopia and enter the final stages of the final cut.
More recently, Marc and Nick were invited by Sundance to spend one week in Utah for a series of workshops. One workshop involved working with producers and distributors from LA and New York on distribution and marketing strategies and the other workshop was an intensive few days of working with music composers on the soundtrack of their film.
Back in the UK Marc and Nick received completion funding from Screen South in December 2005 with a view to getting the film festival-ready.
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