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Buying someone a DVD for Christmas is more difficult than it first appears. How do you know what they have already unless you live with them or scour their house with Poirot-like precision on your next visit? Well, one safe alternative -- unless your mate is Al Gore -- is to buy them an eco or ethical-themed DVD. Here are our faves for gifts.
For the political know-it-all who never misses the news, open their eyes with A Crude Awakening: The Oil Crash. This eco-documentary produced and directed by award-winning European journalists and filmmakers Basil Gelpke and Ray McCormack reveals just how serious and unsustainable our addiction to the black stuff is and, with the help of experts, explores what we can do about it.
Blood Diamond was a hit last year but is still a great watch -- informative and gripping, this will put any bling-loving friend off buying diamonds forever. Set in the conflict and chaos of civil war in Sierra Leone in 1990s, the film stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Danny Archer, a South African mercenary smuggler, and Djimon Hounsou as a fisherman forced to work in the diamond mines by rebel forces who have captured his son. It highlights the role the diamond trade plays in funding wars and the terrible effects this has for the people of countries like Sierra Leone.
Coffee connoisseurs will be woken up sharpish by watching Black Gold. The film follows Tadesse Meskela, a coffee co-op manager, as he journeys from Ethiopia to London and the US to help 74,000 struggling coffee farmers get a fair price for their beans. The film admittedly stretches and labours out its three key points -- coffee prices for the growers are pitiful when left to the free market, Ethiopia has severe poverty problems and in the West we hardly care about the social cost of our caffeine addiction. But for an introduction to the issues and an incentive to buy Fairtrade coffee it’s a start.
If that all sounds a bit heavy, how about this year’s grow-your-own-veg drama, Grow Your Own? Based on the real Family Refugee Support Project in Liverpool, the film sees traumatised asylum seekers given allotment plots as a form of garden therapy. No, it doesn't sound cheerful, but it is a surprisingly fine feel-good film and it might just convince your giftee to sign up for a plot of their own.
17 December 2007 04:47pm
Actually, Sierra Leone has recently elected a new president and despite the atrocities of the past, it is hoping that the diamonds of the future can help build the country up, not leave it languishing in poverty. Diamonds that support conflict are bad. Diamonds that support people and help build schools and infrastructure are good.
People who want to make a difference are better off skipping Hollywood melodramas and instead contributing to organizations like Partnership Africa Canada, which both push the diamond industry to ensure there are zero conflict diamonds, and also work on initiatives that give benefits to the communities (in places like Sierra Leone) where diamonds are mined.
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