Dubai had a rare cinematic treat recently when one of the biggest names in global documentary filmmaking flew into town for a pair of exclusive screenings and Q&A sessions at The Scene Club for her latest film, A Small Section of the World.
Lesley Chilcott's name may not be as recognisable as the likes of Michael Moore or Morgan Spurlock, but as a producer on Davis Guggenheim's An Inconvenient Truth, Waiting for "Superman" and It Might Get Loud – all of which sit proudly among the top 100 grossing documentaries of all time – she is well-known.
A Small Section of the World marks Chilcott's feature-length directorial debut, and she was in Dubai courtesy of OSN and the Sundance Channel to screen the movie ahead of its regional television premiere, alongside It Might Get Loud, on Sundance on February 7.
A Small Section of the World tells the story of a group of Costa Rican women who revolutionised the coffee industry when they set up a women's coffee-producing collective following the departure of their husbands and sons to look for work in cities or neighbouring countries after the price of coffee collapsed in the mid 1990s.
Chilcott and her husband own a farm in Costa Rica but were completely unaware of La Asociación de Mujeres Organizadas de Biolley / The Organized Women’s Association of Biolley (Asomobi) until an unlikely chain of events was set in motion by the Italian coffee giant Illy.
“No one in Costa Rica has even heard of Biolley,” says Chilcott. “You just have to say it’s in the Talamanca Mountains. That just shows how remote it is. It’s just a tiny coffee mill on top of a hill. I have to admit that the story really did come to me.
“Illy is one of few coffee companies that sends agronomists out to the field, and one came back telling them about these amazing women they’d been buying coffee from. Illy is a big contributor to the arts in Europe and wanted to make a film about it, so they contacted a production company in Los Angeles, GreenLight.”
Red lights begin to flash when Chilcott mentions the involvement of Illy – coffee companies are not known for their social responsibility – but having watched the film, it’s safe to say this is far from a piece of corporate marketing.
“It was a surprise to me,” says Chilcott. “As a serious documentary producer, I was immediately: ‘I can’t make a branded documentary’. But they insisted they wanted me to tell the story I wanted to tell. I had final cut, which meant a lot to me, and they let me put all sorts in there about fair prices for farmers, price volatility and so on.”
Once Chilcott agreed to take on the project, she immediately embarked on an exhaustive study of the history and politics of coffee, which, as a tea drinker, she felt was crucial to the film.
But more importantly, she learnt that following a major crisis, when the cost of producing coffee outstripped the price of selling it in the 90s, the women and children of Biolley found themselves essentially abandoned in a region with no industry other than coffee.
The movie charts the women’s attempts, starting in 1997, to convince farmers to let them use their land, to build their own roasters, then build their own mill and, ultimately, after many years and failed attempts, succeed in producing high-end coffee that was able to rise above the continuing slump in prices.
The Costa Rican model has now spread far and wide.
“As you see in the film, Asomobi was the first women’s micro mill in Costa Rica,” says Chilcott. “There are others now, and through a group called the International Women’s Coffee Alliance the story has spread to women in Burundi, in Kenya, in Uganda. They’re all following the Asomobi model.”
• A Small Section of the World will debut on the Sundance Channel, exclusively available through OSN, on February 7. The movie is available on major video on demand channels, including iTunes, Google Play and Amazon Instant
cnewbould@thenational.ae
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
Company Profile
Company name: Cargoz
Date started: January 2022
Founders: Premlal Pullisserry and Lijo Antony
Based: Dubai
Number of staff: 30
Investment stage: Seed
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WHAT IS THE LICENSING PROCESS FOR VARA?
Vara will cater to three categories of companies in Dubai (except the DIFC):
Category A: Minimum viable product (MVP) applicants that are currently in the process of securing an MVP licence: This is a three-stage process starting with [1] a provisional permit, graduating to [2] preparatory licence and concluding with [3] operational licence. Applicants that are already in the MVP process will be advised by Vara to either continue within the MVP framework or be transitioned to the full market product licensing process.
Category B: Existing legacy virtual asset service providers prior to February 7, 2023, which are required to come under Vara supervision. All operating service proviers in Dubai (excluding the DIFC) fall under Vara’s supervision.
Category C: New applicants seeking a Vara licence or existing applicants adding new activities. All applicants that do not fall under Category A or B can begin the application process through their current or prospective commercial licensor — the DET or Free Zone Authority — or directly through Vara in the instance that they have yet to determine the commercial operating zone in Dubai.
Company Profile
Name: HyveGeo
Started: 2023
Founders: Abdulaziz bin Redha, Dr Samsurin Welch, Eva Morales and Dr Harjit Singh
Based: Cambridge and Dubai
Number of employees: 8
Industry: Sustainability & Environment
Funding: $200,000 plus undisclosed grant
Investors: Venture capital and government
A Cat, A Man, and Two Women
Junichiro Tamizaki
Translated by Paul McCarthy
Daunt Books
How to register as a donor
1) Organ donors can register on the Hayat app, run by the Ministry of Health and Prevention
2) There are about 11,000 patients in the country in need of organ transplants
3) People must be over 21. Emiratis and residents can register.
4) The campaign uses the hashtag #donate_hope
