The Cannabis Culture film festival featuring a range of stoner movies was held in the City of Camden this past weekend.
A large range of films were shown. Along with traditional stoner comedies, there were documentaries, short drama and comedy films, short cartoons, and music videos.
The film festival award winners were:
• Best Documentary Feature: “838: The Criminalization of America”
• Best Short Film, Drama: “Herbie”
• Best Short Film, Comedy: “The Podcast”
• Best Short Film, Animated: “Damsels of Luxury’
• Best Music Video: “I’ll Be Seeing You” by Jughead’s Revenge”
• Audience Award: “SUP”
The festival was held at the Curate Noir event space in Camden. The Camden Apothecary dispensary owned by Tony Minitti, sponsored it.
Tim Mattson has organized the festival and brought it to Jersey this time Friday and Saturday. Heady NJ visited Friday.
Stoner Movies Featured and Explained
Former High Times Editor Steve Bloom served as the MC. He explained that while he was there, they covered a lot of stoner movies, which became big in the 90s.
“It really wasn’t a designated genre until that time,” Bloom noted.
He explained Cheech and Chong were the Godfathers of the genre in the 70s with their classic film Up in Smoke.
“You laugh at yourself in a way, the stoner stereotypes that are funny,” Bloom noted.
“The stoner comedy is fading out a bit as legalization comes in,” he added.
Bloom wrote a book called Reefer Movie Madness, which describes the typical stoner comedy as a buddy road trip comedy movie. The book also details more serious “druggy dramas” that don’t involve cannabis.
SUP Short Film
The award-winning humorous short film SUP was shown on Friday. It featured a woman in a bikini paddling around her Florida community and its swamp after she ate weed gummies. She seems chiller than the rest of the community, especially after she pisses off a golfer who chases her into the swamp. Shenanigans ensure.
After it was shown, the director Greg Stewart and star Tobi McCullen were interviewed by Bloom.
“So you consider this a stoner short?” Bloom asked.
“For sure, Stewart said. “To me, being high is … being in nature. I wanted to convey that,” Stewart explained.
He noted that her neighborhood in Tampa Bay, Florida, is a wealthy community she doesn’t exactly fit into but is at peace with that.
American Pot Story: Oaksterdam Documentary Screened
Bloom introduced the American Post Story documentary about Oaksterdam University and its efforts to legalize adult-use cannabis. Oaksterdam University is a stronghold of the legalization movement in Oakland, CA. It was started by Richard Lee and brought to full bloom by Dale Sky Jones.
They were the main backers of the 2010 recreational cannabis legalization referendum campaign depicted in the movie.
While they didn’t have enough money to run a full campaign, they did get many friendly stories in the media. Plus, activists came from across the country to help, like leading NOMRL NJ and home grow legalization advocate Evan Nisan, who was in college then.
The referendum ultimately failed in California by 53 percent. It faced unique opposition from medical marijuana legalization advocates and legacy operators worried about the establishment of large corporate Multi-State Operators (MSOs). In addition, the establishment Democratic Party in 2010 was not friendly.
After they lost, the Drug Enforcement Authority (DEA) then raided it and took their money and assets the day of a mass shooting across town.
Jones kept it going after Lee stepped down. While it was very hard after they were raided, the silver lining was that Members of Congress representing the Bay Area, like Barbara Lee and Nancy Pelosi, then spoke out on their behalf.
They then worked on the adult-use cannabis legalization campaigns in Washington State and Colorado in 2012, which they won in states far smaller than California.
The movement progressed from there. Jones became an increasingly respectable figure, charming politicians who then supported the successful movement to legalize adult-use cannabis in California in 2016.
Cannabis Culture Film Festival
On Saturday, a street fair was held along with the film festival between Curate Noir and Camden Apothecary. There was a lot of fun to be had.
Also, Cookies Brand Ambassador StonerBro Flex the “Biggest Broski” led a a cannabis community discussion at the festival.
The festival is a traveling show that has been held elsewhere in other years. The next Cannabis Culture Film Fest event will take place in Brooklyn, NY, on Dec. 7th.
