Jeff Hann
An older man in a patterned headwrap and a woven scarf, in profile, in a coffee forest

Storyteller
Filmmaker · Photographer

Jeff Hann

I make films and photographs with people whose stories rarely travel as far as their coffee does.

Watch the films Start a project

In the coffee forest

01Observe and interact

Hi, I'm Jeff.

Jeff as a small child, smiling, in a white shirt
Then
Jeff today, smiling, in a striped T-shirt in front of a garden doorway
Now

Not much has changed, except these days I dress myself.

I love films, people and adventure.

For 14 years I've told stories through documentary: directing, shooting and editing, often as a crew of one or two, running and gunning through farms, washing stations, cities and championship stages.

In 2016 I directed my first feature, The Coffee Man. It screened in 350+ cinemas across 50+ countries, won Best Australian Documentary at the Melbourne Documentary Film Festival and was nominated for a James Beard Award. Four years later came Coffee Heroes, which follows Agnieszka Rojewska as she becomes the first woman to win the World Barista Championship.

For the last 10 years I've also worked inside the coffee industry, in media and as a program manager. Today I'm Head of Media at Raw Material.

Along the way I've spent 11 days walking Ethiopia's wild coffee forests, and had a rib cracked by a world barista champion who decided to pick me up off the ground.

14years as a storyteller on film
10years working in the coffee industry
2independent feature documentaries
Jeff smiling beside his camera on a tripod, above a green hillside farm

Where the camera has been

  • Ethiopia
  • Honduras
  • Colombia
  • United States
  • Brazil
  • Ireland
  • United Arab Emirates
  • Netherlands
  • Australia
  • Timor-Leste
  • Burundi

02Use edges and value the marginal

My job is a mission: to work with people who've had less luck than I have, and help their stories travel.

Edge theory says life is richest where two worlds meet: where forest meets field, or river meets land. Edges have energy.

Coffee has an edge too. The farmers, pickers and processors at the start of the chain do the hardest work and are heard the least. That's where I point the camera, and where I stay long enough to listen.

A farmer in a bright patterned shirt picking ripe red coffee cherry under banana leaves

03Obtain a yield

Two feature documentaries

Independent films, shot by tiny crews across nine countries. The first follows one man chasing a world title. The second follows him handing it on.

2016 · Feature documentary · 83 min · 12 subtitle languages

The Coffee Man

From war-torn Yugoslavia to Australia, and from there to the top of the coffee world. The film follows Sasa Sestic from Ethiopia, the birthplace of coffee, through Honduras and Colombia to Seattle and the 2015 World Barista Championship.

  • WinnerBest Australian Documentary, Melbourne Documentary Film Festival 2016
  • WinnerSpotlight Documentary Film Awards 2016
  • NomineeBest Documentary, James Beard Awards
  • NomineeBest Documentary: Biography, ATOM Awards 2016
  • SelectionCinefestOZ Film Festival 2016

“100% the best coffee film we have ever seen.”

Barista Magazine

Director Jeff Hann · Producer Roland Fraval · Editor Tony Stevens

2020 · Feature documentary · 86 min · 8 languages

Coffee Heroes

Sasa comes back as a coach. In Amsterdam he works with Agnieszka Rojewska, the Polish Barista Champion, on the routine that makes her the first woman ever to win the World Barista Championship. Filmed in Ethiopia's wild coffee forests, Brazil, Dublin, the UAE and Australia.

  • SelectionDili International Film Festival 2020
  • SelectionCinefestOZ Film Festival 2020

“This film is epic. It's got heart, personality and passion.”

BeanScene Magazine

Director & producer Jeff Hann · Co-producer & cinematography Michael Duff · Editor Tony Stevens (ASE) · Music Joel Woolf

Three men on stage in front of a Melbourne Documentary Film Festival backdrop, one speaking into a microphone
On stage at the Melbourne Documentary Film Festival, 2016
A full cinema in China, the audience posing around a poster for The Coffee Man
A full house for The Coffee Man in China

“An intimate portrait of man in search of perfection.”

Sydney Scoop

“It will make you laugh, it will make you cry, it will make you cheer.”

Sydney Social 101

04Use and value diversity

Photographs

A monoculture is neat, and fragile. I'd rather a polyculture: every age, every culture, every link in the chain, from the hillside where the cherry ripens to the stage where the cup is judged.

Since 2015 I've been an SCA photographer at the World of Coffee competitions. If you're at a coffee show, you'll probably find me on stage.

An older man with a grey beard, black hat and surf T-shirt, hands folded, in front of green hills
Aerial view at sunset over Timor-Leste: the sun going down behind mountain ridges, a village and a winding road on the forested hill below
A young person in a bright blue T-shirt looking straight into the camera
Terraced coffee hillsides and a winding road under towering clouds
Black and white portrait of a man in a pale shirt, looking into the camera
A smiling man in red glasses and a bright floral jacket at a coffee event
A woman in a tan jacket, arms crossed, smiling as she watches from a crowd
A young woman laughing, a camera bag over her shoulder, forest behind her
Aerial view of a hillside village with round thatched houses, three solar panels, tin roofs and green terraces
A young man in a mustard T-shirt and black cap grinning and throwing a shaka
A man with a backpack climbing out along a rock ridge above a deep green valley, under low grey cloud
More on Instagram

05Integrate rather than segregate

Ten years in coffee

Coffee passes through a hundred pairs of hands between the farm and the cup. I've spent a decade filming both ends, and connecting them.

A smiling man leaning over raised beds of parchment coffee drying on a hillside
A barista waving to the crowd from a competition espresso station
At origin On the stage

For ten years I've worked inside the coffee industry as a media producer and program manager: filming origin trips with producers, running programs, and photographing the competition stage where the world's best baristas are made.

Today I'm Head of Media at Raw Material, telling the stories of the farming communities behind their coffee in places like Timor-Leste and Burundi.

  • NowHead of Media, Raw Material
  • 10 yearsCoffee media and program management
  • 2015–18Two World Barista Championship campaigns, filmed from the inside
  • Since 2015SCA photographer, World of Coffee competitions

06Use small and slow solutions

How I work, and why

Storytelling is one of the oldest things people do. It was probably the first thing we did once we could talk, and it's still how we understand each other.

The people who grow the world's coffee deserve to be seen as clearly as the people who drink it. Films and photographs are how I close that distance.

  1. 1

    Small crew, close up

    Most of my work is made by one or two people. A small crew fits in a kitchen, a truck or a drying shed, and after a while people forget it's there. That's when the real conversation starts.

  2. 2

    Trust before footage

    Documentary runs on relationships. I want everyone I film to be proud of how they're shown, and to recognise themselves when they watch it.

  3. 3

    Let the story lead

    I plan hard, then follow what actually happens. The Coffee Man set out to be a film about sourcing coffee and became a portrait of one man's obsession, because that was the truer story.

  4. 4

    Leave people wanting to act

    A good film should change what someone does next: what they buy, who they back, how they see the person at the start of the chain.

07Creatively use and respond to change

Let's make something that lasts.

I love to collaborate. If you'd like to make something together, or just talk it through, please get in touch.

  • Feature & short documentaries
  • Origin & impact films
  • Brand stories for coffee
  • Portrait & event photography
  • Competition coverage
  • Mentoring & training, online or in the field