Director Michael Henning combines interviews and archival footage to tell the story of hemp's continued prohibition. Watch the trailer below
The main focus is Harrelson and the Lakota Sioux, both of whom got into trouble for planting hemp in the '90s. Harrelson's case took place in his home state of Kentucky, where we meet perennial gubernatorial candidate Gatewood Galbraith and farmers like Joe Hickey and Craig Lee. Harrelson eventually wins his case.
The Lakota of Pine Ridge in South Dakota are not so lucky. After deciding by tribal law to separate marijuana from hemp, Alex White Plume and others planted large fields of hemp on the rez, only to have them eradicated each time by the DEA. "The hemp plants are sort of like the Lakota," he offers philosophically. "No matter how hard you try to kill them, the harder they come back."
Nelson says about hemp: "There's a reason that the powers that be put that plant here and to eradicate it from all over the plant is not exactly what the big guy had in mind, if you know what I mean. He put it in there and why should we take it out? It's a useful crop that grows organically out of the soil. Check it out!"
The third compelling story in Hempsters is Julia Butterfly Hill's. The redwoods activist who lived in a tree for two years in Humboldt County is seen in footage high atop the California old-growth forest - or what's left of it anyway - and on the ground, where she insists, "Hemp isn't the alternative, hemp is the solution."
Jack Herer, author of The Emperor Wears No Clothes, who the film is dedicated to, would be proud. Clips from Hemp for Victory, Reefer Madness and Family Guy," and songs by Nelson ("We Don't Run") and Austin's Asylum Street Spankers ("We're Winning the War on Drugs") fill out this effective doc from Cinema Libre Studio.
Contest: CelebStoner has given away copies of Hempsters to: Mass Cann board member Sara Arnold of Burlington, MA; Pam McGuffey of Scottsville, KY; Teapot Party organizer Mark R. Mitteer of Little Rock, AR; Mark Scott Peterson of Milford, PA; and Max Weisman of Marlboro, NJ. Congrats!
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