After First Contact and Joe Leah's Neighbours, Black Harvest is the third film of the Highlands Trilogy. It charts the progress of Joe Leahy in convincing the Caniga tribes people to join him in a coffee growing venture. He provides the money and the expertise; They supply land and labour. He stands to make 60%; the tribes people 40%. Tribal wars and the drop in coffee prices on the world market conspire to defeat the venture. Always suspect because of his mixed-race status, Joe is in deep trouble with the tribes people when his promises of riches fail to materialize. As he organizes to migrate with his family to Australia, he is a saddened man with an uncertain future.

In the 1930s, Australian miners lead by Michael Leahy and his brothers made their first trek into the New Guinea highlands. This was the first contact between white people and highlanders. Compelling footage of the initial meetings is combined with interviews of the surviving brothers and highlanders who recall the impressions and shock of those long ago events.

Continues the story initiated in its first video, First Contact. Joe Leahy is the mixed race son of Australian miner Michael Leahy and a young highland girl. Joe, now in his fifties, is a wealthy coffee plantation owner. He lives in Western-style grandeur amidst his poorer Ganiga neighbours. The filmmakers lived in the highlands and filmed for eighteen months. They built a grass and thatch house on the edge of Joe Leahy's plantation, in the "no man's land" between Joe and the Ganiga. The film poignantly portrays both perspectives without value judgments or resolution for either side.