A Six Dollar Cup of Coffee

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Sunday, May 13, 2018 - 2:00pm

SFU-GCA (149 W Hastings St)

Genre(s)

Economics, Environment and Sustainability, Labour and Work, Latin America, Sustainability

Trailer(s)

Community Partner(s)

Screening Sponsor(s)

Andres Ibañez and Alejandro Diaz |

Mexico |

2017 |

70 minutes

What would you think is more shocking: a one-dollar cup of coffee or a six-dollar cup of coffee? All operators of the coffee industry agree on the answer: a one-dollar cup of coffee shouldn’t even be a reality. Unfortunately, as the film demonstrates, this is the only thing they can agree on.

When a coffee co-op founded by Indigenous producers in Chiapas, Mexico decides to sell processed coffee, instead of selling green coffee, a Japanese company buys most of their product. Everything seems great. But after a fungus destroys 70% of the production, and the Japanese sell their chain restaurants, the co-op has to start all over again. From the mountains of Mexico to a fancy coffee shop in Seattle, the narrative takes us through the entire process of coffee-making and trading. Through a wide range of interviewees, all coffee aficionados, the two directors reveal how complex this highly globalized market has become. Despite a facade of good intentions, fair solutions are not easy to come by. A Six Dollar Cup of Coffee doesn’t try to provide answers or solutions to the current situation. Rather, co-directors Andres Ibañez and Alejandro Diaz, themselves coffee lovers, aim to remind people what is behind the scenes. And the real price of the coffee that we all so enjoy. -ML

Filmmaker

Andres Ibañez

Andres Ibañez has studied at the Universidad Iberoamericana Ciudad de Mexico, the School of Visual Arts in New York, and SOGEM – General Society of Mexican Writers. He has directed and produced through his company StereoSonique, and his clients include: Coca-Cola, L ́Oréal, Nike, and Bacardi. He has won awards at the Internationalist Media Awards, MTV Video Awards, the Cartagena Film Festival, Festival of Media Global and Latam, IAB Mexico, and was nominated for the Cannes Lions for the Castaway Diaries campaign for Ciel. His short film Colors was screened at several international film festivals, he directed two seasons of the successful Colombian webserie SinFiltro with Rafael Novoa, and was Content Director for Rio Suena Morning Edition during the Rio2016 Olympics. This year is he premieres his debut works, Sacudete las Penas (fiction), and A six dollar cup of coffee (documentary).

Filmmaker

Alejandro Diaz

Alejandro Diaz studied Communication Sciences at the Universidad Anáhuac Norte, Documentary Cinema at the University Center of Cinematographic Studies, worked at the Mexican Institute of Cinematography, IMCINE (2007-2011), and participated as a jury member in the international festivals of Santo Domingo (2009) and Warsaw (2010). He co-directed the short film Yo, Mariachi, production coordinated Chalán by Jorge Michel Grau (2012) and Eisenstein en Guanajuato by Peter Greenaway (2014), co-directed the short film Madre (DOCSDF, Macabro Horror Festival of Mexico City, and Morbid International Horror Film Festival), co-wrote Sacúdete las penas (to be released in commercial cinemas in 2018), and co- directed/co-produced A six dollar cup of coffee. He currently performs and collaborates on documentaries, commercials, and interviews for a variety of clients and brands.

Justice Forum Panelist

Hannah Wittman

Hannah Wittman is Academic Director, Centre for Sustainable Food Systems and an Associate Professor, Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability (IRES). Her research projects examine the ways that the rights to produce and consume food are contested and transformed through struggles for agrarian reform, food sovereignty, and agrarian citizenship.

Federico Andrade-Rivas

I am a PhD student at the School of Population and Public Health, at the university of British Columbia. I was born in Colombia, where I graduated as an Anthropologist and Environmental Engineer. After working in different projects in Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Mexico, and Costa Rica, I found my passion for broad approaches to explore human health and its connection with nature and ecosystems health. I did my Master in Public Health at the University of Cape Town (South Africa) and after returning to Colombia, I collaborated for three years in several research projects with Universidad El Bosque and Universidad de Antioquia. Beyond studying and conducting research, I am a rock climber, and an coffee brewing enthusiast.