The Future of Coffee

Note: this film is intended to serve as the pilot episode for an 8-part series.
30 mins.

Log Line
Curious host visits roasters, café owners, baristas, and scientists to explore the history
behind the wide range of coffee varietals, coffee beverages, cafes, and range of costs
for a single cup of coffee, while taking a close look at the sustainability and future of the
industry.

The Future of Coffee focuses on coffee as the locus of intersecting current concerns
regarding labor, global trade, and environmentalism, which promises to be timely
and relevant.

Scope and Style of the Film
What Anthony Bourdain (e.g. No Reservations) did with food and culture, we do with
coffee but with greater emphasis on the cultural, economic, and social influences and
conditions. Yes, we’re more informative and educational but without sacrificing
entertainment.

Production Overview
The film crew travels around the Northeastern United States and along the west
coast conducting interviews with experts within the coffee industry – including café
owners, roasters, and baristas, and individual consumers. Along the west coast
journey we attend and conduct interviews at the Specialty Coffee Association annual
expo in Portland, Oregon. The crew also visits several coffee growing regions to
document the processes and people responsible for raising, harvesting, and
processing coffee.

Crew
The writer, director, and host, Kevin Taylor Anderson, is an award-winning
documentary filmmaker with a PhD in cultural anthropology. His filmmaking has
taken him to Africa, India, and Europe and around the United States. For more
information on Kevin, follow the links to his Vimeo and UMass pages.

The crew are an elite selection of undergraduate Communication and Film Studies
students at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, where Kevin is a Senior
Lecturer in Media, Culture, and Visual Methods.