We've just chosen another feature-lenght film for this year's festival: Food, Inc.! This documentary explores our nation's food industry and exposes the highly mechanized process that now brings food to our tables. Although often shocking, the film reveals a lot about who we've become as a people through our food choices.

One of this year's feature films will be Asparagus! stalking the american life. The film tells the story of Oceana County Michigan, one of the largest producers of asparagus in the United States, and the community's struggles to continue growing its signature crop.

Join us to watch the story of family farmers and an asparagus-loving community fighting to maintain a way of life threatened by the U.S. War on Drugs, free trade and a fast food culture.

The other short film we watched at this year's Festival was Fair Trade - The Story, which provides a brief look at how Fair Trade impacts people along the supply line.

One of the featurettes we watched at this year's Festival was "The danger of a single story," a July 2009 TEDTalk given by Nigerian author Chimamanda Adichie.

Adichie certainly packs a lot into a short speech, but her warnings about the danger of a single story seem particularly important to conversations about justice. When we allow a single story to define another person or culture, we are limiting what we are able to see and expect. As a result, people, countries and entire continents get written into a corner by the stories told about them by the powerful.

When watched in succession with Black Gold, it's interesting to see how a single story of trade relationships has defined developing nations. Instead of coffee farmers being seen as partners in a trading relationship, they are seen as merely another cost factor to be driven down to the lowest price. And then they are seen as obstinate when they try to represent their interests at global trade meetings.

Here's the trailer for Black Gold the feature length film we'll be highlighting at the 2010 Rivers of Justice Film Festival:

For more information on the film, check out the Black Gold web site where you can find all kinds of additional resources about coffee and fair trade.