Search Results: filmmaker (20)

Windy Borman grew up during the height of the DARE era in the ’80s and ‘90s. She never smoked cannabis, which she knew as a gateway drug, because addiction ran in her family.

But Borman, 37, moved to Colorado for a job in 2014, the same year recreational pot was legalized. She had produced and directed films on topics such as elephants that stepped on landmines and learning disabilities, but she found a new subject in her new home: women in the cannabis industry.

After completing a fall film festival circuit, Bormann will travel to four more festivals this spring. She’s also doing a grassroots tour in seven cities across the country, including Denver, to stir up conversations around cannabis in local communities. In an interview with Westword, Borman talks about “puffragettes,” today’s social challenges surrounding cannabis and the first reactions to her film.

Adam Hartle (left) with Tom Tancredo.


In January 2013, ex-Colorado Congressman Tom Tancredo had promised to puff a joint on camera as part of a comedian/filmmaker’s movie about Colorado’s new marijuana laws should the measure pass — which it did.
Tancredo later welched on his bet under pressure from his family. But in Mile High — The COmeback of Cannabis, the now-completed documentary, which screens tonight through Thursday (with Hartle promising to give out free legal pot to adults 21 and over outside theaters), Tancredo watches as the director blazes.

Pot.tv

As voters begin receiving their voter pamphlets and as voter registration closes, the Yes on 80 campaign is bringing the soon-to-be-released social documentary, Legalize It, and its filmmaker, Dan Katzir, to Oregon for a series of screenings and private events.

Legalize It is an inspiring journey demonstrating that even those without wealth and political connection can bend the arc toward greater social justice.  
 
The public screenings give Oregonians a special opportunity to preview the documentary, which follows the Proposition 19 campaign in California that, in 2010, transformed a fringe social issue into a mainstream political topic and set the stage for marijuana-policy reform efforts in 2012 in Oregon, Colorado and Washington. 

Seattle filmmaker Josef Wilke is doing a documentary on Washington state Initiative 502, Local Voices: I-502, a voter initiative regulating the sale of marijuana which will be on November’s general election ballot.

“We are attempting to show the entire story of I-502,” Wilke told Toke of the Town in an exclusive interview. “We want to balance the media coverage which has ignored the DUI legislation and other concerns, specifically medical marijuana patients’ concerns.”

“Our documentary is not going to make a difference in the November 6 election,” Wilke said. “In fact, it is going to be more about what happens after the election.”

“I-502 seems to be marching to a victory,” Wilke said. “We intend to release our film in April of 2013. We want to document the promises that are being made b y the campaign to address legitimate concerns and hold them to account as we gauge the reactions and of actions by both our state and federal governments.”

Wilke is working through local Seattle video production company Confluent VideoMedia, owned by Tim Sheehan. Tim is producer for the film.

Toke of the Town got a chance to ask Wilke and Sheehan a few questions about the 502 documentary.

 

VoteKaleka.org
Amardeep Singh Kaleka

Amardeep Singh Kaleka didn’t see politics in his future five years ago, nor did the Indian-American filmmaker think he would become a face for the compassionate use of cannabis. The Wisconsin-raised Kaleka instead was focusing on an Emmy-award winning career. But all of that changed in 2012 when his father, founder of the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin, was gunned down along with five others by a white supremacist that had entered the temple apparently in an attempt to start a holy war.
In his grief, Kaleka – living in California at the time – turned to medical cannabis to help his anxiety, panic-attacks and complete lack of appetite that comes with the tragic loss of a loved one.

Tom Tancredo doesn’t want to hit your doobie.

Recently Colorado Republican firebrand politician (and onetime presidential candidate) Tom Tancredo made headlines for agreeing to smoke marijuana on camera with a Florida-based filmmaker if Colorado’s Amendment 64 was passed. Well, the bill was approved but Tancredo apparently had no intention of following through with his agreement. He says his wife told him that it might be a bad influence on their grandchildren and he has since declined the filmmaker’s offer.

It’s too bad. Not only for Tancredo’s own well-being (the dude clearly needs a joint), but also for his place in history. He could have easily joined the ranks of the top ten politicians who’ve smoked pot, as compiled by our sister paper, the Denver Westword.

Legalize It

Special Preview and Panel Discussion Planned Oct. 24 In Long Beach
As debates over widely divergent ballot measures to legalize marijuana heat up in Colorado, Oregon and Washington, a group of cops, judges and other law enforcement officers calling for an end to the war on drugs is holding a special sneak peek at Legalize It, a new documentary about Proposition 19, the 2010 California campaign to legalize and regulate marijuana like alcohol.
Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), in conjunction with Willie Nelson’s Luck Films and award-winning filmmakers Dan Katzir and Ravit Markus, on October 214 will host a special screening and discussion panel of the film at the Art Theatre of Long Beach.  
Legalize It, a documentary about the Prop. 19 campaign 
Wednesday, October 24, 2012 7-10 p.m.
Art Theatre of Long Beach, 2025 E. 4th Street, Long Beach

Film Affinity

Danny Glover and Director Eugene Jarecki Will Hold Advance Screening of The House I Live In, Winner of Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize, in San Francisco on Monday, Sept. 24
Filmmakers Teaming Up with Advocacy Groups, Law Enforcement, Elected Officials across Country to Educate and Mobilize to End Disastrous War on Drugs
A special screening of the thought-provoking documentary, The House I Live In, will be held Monday, September 24, at 6 p.m., in San Francisco. The Drug Policy Alliance, ACLU of Northern California, Legal Services for Prisoners with Children, and Californians United for a Responsible Budget will host the screening.
Immediately following the screening, there will be a Q&A session with the director, Eugene Jarecki, who is partnering with a vast array of advocacy groups, legislators and law enforcement to spread the film’s message about the disastrous consequences of the failed War On Drugs.



The final cut of the new marijuana infomercial, Should Grandma Smoke Pot? has been released and is now available for public viewing (see video above).

Produced by famous smuggler/author/activist Robert Platshorn and the award-winning filmmaker Walter J. Collins, Should Grandma Smoke Pot?, this made-for-TV version of Platshorn’s Silver Tour stuns viewers with medical and legal facts long kept from the public.

Platshorn’s Silver Tour teaches seniors the benefits of medical marijuana, and has drawn worldwide praise, been featured on the front page of The Wall Street Journal, featured on CNN Money, praised by Newsweek‘s Daily Beast, and coming soon to The Daily Show. He is the author of the autobiography Black Tuna Diaries and is featured in the smuggling documentary Square Grouper.
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