Documentary short
The Real Cost of Coffee
A documentary that looks beyond the daily cup to the communities carrying the financial, agricultural and climate pressures of global coffee production.
Watch the project
An independently produced documentary directed by Blue Dot collaborator Byron Wylder. Original production credit remains with Lumapixel and St Remio.
01 / The story
Look beyond the cup
More than 125 million people contribute to the coffee the world drinks every day. The Real Cost of Coffee shifts attention from the finished product to the farming communities at the beginning of that chain.
Filmed with the Cocagi coffee farming co-operative in Rwanda, the documentary explores financial inequality, limited access to agronomic training and the growing impact of climate change.
A documentary that looks beyond the daily cup to the communities carrying the financial, agricultural and climate pressures of global coffee production.
02 / The approach
From commodity to community
Director Byron Wylder travelled to Rwanda in April 2023 through his work with St Remio Coffee via Lumapixel. The film centres the people whose knowledge, work and livelihoods sit behind the product.
It is the kind of specialist documentary thinking Byron brings to the Blue Dot collective: finding the human access inside a complex issue and building the film around lived experience rather than abstract explanation.
03 / The outcome
A clearer view of the people behind coffee
The finished documentary connects a global production problem to the individuals and communities living with its consequences, giving audiences a more human way into the conversation.
This was independently produced by Lumapixel and St Remio. It is featured here to demonstrate the documentary experience Byron Wylder brings to the Blue Dot collective.