| Kym Kemp |
| “Humboldt pot farmers maintain one of the last remaining small farming economies in the country, the last of a tradition where people working the land with their hands could still sustain themselves and their families.” ~ Mikal Jakubal |
By Kym Kemp
Redheaded Blackbelt
“In Humboldt County, everyone has sticky stuff on their fingers…Every business in this county relies on the marijuana business,” proclaims a subject in One Good Year, a new documentary nearing completion that is based on the cannabis growers of this area.
To outsiders and, even to some who live here, the scope of the marijuana business in this community is unimaginable. Local documentary maker, Mikal Jakubal, examines that world by moving intimately through the lives of four local marijuana farmers (see the trailer below.)
Jakubal, who in addition to film-making owns a nursery, is a volunteer firefighter, and writes a blog in Humboldt County, began production on One Good Year in February of 2010–just in time for Prop. 19 which attempted to legalize marijuana in California. He followed his subjects through their growing season and through the political upheavals that Prop. 19 brought. In the process he tells the story of many in Humboldt County.