Introduction: documentary filmmaker

[sandes]

Retire or be retread? That is the question.
Good Morning,
My name is Sandes Ashe, I recently retired from the Film and Television Production industry after about thirty years in the camera department and am re-exploring the world of documentary micro-production; low tech, high mobility film making. I had once a small production company when Hi8 Video was revolutionary, shot sports mostly... the Ironman Canada, the Mountain Bike Championship of the Universe, that sort of thing... made no money but supported good causes. Well, I made money working in Film and Television but supported very few worthy causes... Cool Runnings, DaVinci's Inquest, The Excoricism of Emily Rose, The Masters of Science Fiction... there must be another I'm proud of but can't think of it.
I've been a marijuana enthusiast (I was young) a vocal advocate (I was political) and now I wish to be (retread as) an educator. I have seen documentaries, notably The Union, the Business Behind Getting High, which were not only engaging, informational, but financially successful. And by now somewhat dated. I have not seen anything recently produced which has shed light upon recent legalization, legislation, regulation and medicinalization of Cannabis (formerly known as marijuana). If anyone can suggest recent relevant documentary film on the subject would you please pass it along to me here.
Thanks
And comments suggestions invited.
Peace

 

[NickHardy]

I can't suggest any myself but I’m going to check out the ones you mentioned!

I hope someone has been making a documentary about Thailand’s recent experiment, having lived through it

Sounds like a fun life you’ve had for sure!

Some of the people involved in the hobby/industry longer than me likely will chime in with some recommendations.


Nick

 

[bluter]

there isn't much anymore.

the production houses and online zines like vice that would cover this have become victims of the internet. when everyone can make a pile of shit content for nothing it gets hard to produce well researched, informative, or decently written content.

maybe you are one of the answers we need.

 

[Bill284]

Retire or be retread? That is the question.
Good Morning,
My name is Sandes Ashe, I recently retired from the Film and Television Production industry after about thirty years in the camera department and am re-exploring the world of documentary micro-production; low tech, high mobility film making. I had once a small production company when Hi8 Video was revolutionary, shot sports mostly... the Ironman Canada, the Mountain Bike Championship of the Universe, that sort of thing... made no money but supported good causes. Well, I made money working in Film and Television but supported very few worthy causes... Cool Runnings, DaVinci's Inquest, The Excoricism of Emily Rose, The Masters of Science Fiction... there must be another I'm proud of but can't think of it.
I've been a marijuana enthusiast (I was young) a vocal advocate (I was political) and now I wish to be (retread as) an educator. I have seen documentaries, notably The Union, the Business Behind Getting High, which were not only engaging, informational, but financially successful. And by now somewhat dated. I have not seen anything recently produced which has shed light upon recent legalization, legislation, regulation and medicinalization of Cannabis (formerly known as marijuana). If anyone can suggest recent relevant documentary film on the subject would you please pass it along to me here.
Thanks
And comments suggestions invited.
Peace

Welcome to 420magazine my friend


Stay safe
Bill284

 

[sandes]

there isn't much anymore.

the production houses and online zines like vice that would cover this have become victims of the internet. when everyone can make a pile of shit content for nothing it gets hard to produce well researched, informative, or decently written content.

maybe you are one of the answers we need.

As much can be said for the entire Film and Television Industry… people will buy anything (or almost anything, folks won’t buy bad weed). Things change, times change, hence I say be retired or retread.
The bee in my own personal bonnet right now is the legalization and subsequent stifling with legislation, the under-informed and over-inflated, governed and regulated Canadian Cannabis Cultivation industry. Mom and Pops, brother and sister hoods, bread and butter operations bred a better combination, developed and demonstrated that marijuana had actual medicinal properties; the folk that care have been basically evicted from the Cannabis pharms. And I wonder if the Cannabis Cup, Charlotte’s Web or Phoenix Tears could be developed today under the gaze and thumb of greater capital interests and tax collection initiatives. That’s the immediate impetus or my motivational interest in the documentary proposal I am mulling but seriously I would appreciate any and all input on the subject right now as I begin to research and imagine a story line, build a pitch, write a script and get to setting the wheels in motion.
Anecdotes, anything… informative, engaging, enlightening or just plain entertaining… if you’re willing.
- cheers

 

[JiggiLotus]

Welcome to the threads.
I've always found it interesting that cannabis has been called " the gateway drug" for my whole existence. Where as in turn, it has been used to contradict those that are addicted to harder substances. When they want to get away from it, they tend to use cannabis as a way to help come off their drug of choice, use cannabis to ease that edge of withdrawal and use it to suppress the demon that addiction truly is.
Live and learn. Basically, cannabis allowed me a path to freedom of addiction. I didn't trade one drug for another either. I don't smoke until my harvest. I smoke what I harvest. I'm addicted to gardening. Too bad growing it is still regulated by laws.

 

[NickHardy]

Dispensary Owner in San Francisco Brags of Ripping Off Farmers

A San Francisco dispensary owner has been exposed boasting about how he has made 'hundreds of thousands of dollars' by ripping off cannabis farmers - as

www.420magazine.com

The above and twenty different versions of it.

My wife and I are Mom and Pop, well we’re in Thailand so probably Maymay and Papa, growers in Thailand, out of your geographical interest but its the same story.

They legalised here. We got grow and dispensary licenses and I fortunately haven’t tallied what I’ve spent but lets say $10k USD and sorted it like a full time job (fortunately I already had several of those to pay for it all)

The dispensary owners laughed at us trying to sell at even much above the cost of the just the electricity and nutes let alone allowing for labour, trim, packaging because they were buying illegal imports from California mostly. Government has done nothing to stop this - its a tourist town. If you had to put a flag of origin on it most I reckon but choose Thai grown, an imperfect analogy but you’re not going to go on holiday to Italy and look out for a Dominos Pizza, are you? the dispensaries are majority owned by young Europeans with Thai front staff, Russians mostly. So the people making money (They buy for less than a dollar a gram such is the glut) aren’t even Thai.

Now after 18 months they look like they’re gonna ban it again this week. They want big companies, rumour is two. With beer there are two - there could be a third as long as you guarantee 100m litres of sale per month. So weed - as long as you guarantee a 100kg a month and you invest $50m. Bye bye the rest of you.

We entered the business in good faith. Spent a lot of time on it. By the end of next month we’ll have finished and have on hand maybe 10kg and yet another 10kg a little after that.

What are we meant to do with that? Who’s gonna reimburse us for our investment costs and all that weed we have we can’t sell it.

Thailand is an agrarian country still. It was pitched as a cash crop as much as anything. Looks like the only people gonna make any cash are the dispensary owners already made it and the two existing conglomerates that given licences.

Some version of this has happened certainly in the US and I guess Canada, though you’d know better than me.

So yeah. Sucks basically. You’ll find people like us all over the world. One of my best mates has been growing illegally at huge scale in his home country, outdoor/greenhouse. His wife was Thai so he moved here, bought a huge chunk of land, 8 greenhouses 20x60m and planted thousands of plants. His greenhouse was better than what the dispensaries were selling as indoor Cali.

Grew hundreds of kilos. Sold 30 or something? Closed it all up and moved back to his country and started again.

We got no protection from the government and they’re now giving the industry away to other people.

Sucks.

 

[Vegan4life]

Welcome to 420! Great picture! Have you thought about filming soil microscopy? It is very fascinating.
Happy Growing!

 

[CaptainLucky]

Retire or be retread? That is the question.
Good Morning,
My name is Sandes Ashe, I recently retired from the Film and Television Production industry after about thirty years in the camera department and am re-exploring the world of documentary micro-production; low tech, high mobility film making. I had once a small production company when Hi8 Video was revolutionary, shot sports mostly... the Ironman Canada, the Mountain Bike Championship of the Universe, that sort of thing... made no money but supported good causes. Well, I made money working in Film and Television but supported very few worthy causes... Cool Runnings, DaVinci's Inquest, The Excoricism of Emily Rose, The Masters of Science Fiction... there must be another I'm proud of but can't think of it.
I've been a marijuana enthusiast (I was young) a vocal advocate (I was political) and now I wish to be (retread as) an educator. I have seen documentaries, notably The Union, the Business Behind Getting High, which were not only engaging, informational, but financially successful. And by now somewhat dated. I have not seen anything recently produced which has shed light upon recent legalization, legislation, regulation and medicinalization of Cannabis (formerly known as marijuana). If anyone can suggest recent relevant documentary film on the subject would you please pass it along to me here.
Thanks
And comments suggestions invited.
Peace

Welcome to 420 Magazine. I love watching documentaries, I have seen many. Favorites being from Ken Burns, I think I have seen everything that he has done. CL

 

[Azimuth]

I think it would be interesting to see an anti-propaganda type film.

The reason it's illegal is an interesting backstory. Basically racism financed by corporate interests. The politicians wanted to prevent the Mexican immigrants and blacks from voting and that campaign was financed by William Randolf Hearst who wanted to protect the financial interests of the timberlands he owned that supplied pulp to make his newspapers (turns out hemp is at least 5-10x more efficient in producing pulp for paper than trees. Also it's an annual crop so you don't have to wait decades for a usable crop) .

Fast forward to today and it's mostly the big drug companies and for-profit prison companies doing the funding. And its all built on lies.

Cannabis is a Schedule 1 drug which by definition means it is highly addictive (lie) and has no known medical benefits (lie). The government actually holds a patent on the medical benefits.

So they just make stuff up, propagandize the crap put of it and most people are too lazy to actually learn the reality themselves so they just accept what is fed to them.

I'd like to see a documentary that pulls back the curtain. Hemp is an incredible plant. Many times more productive than trees for pulp and paper, and can be made into a multitude of products. Could actually replace fossil fuels for many (most) of that compounds' uses. I saw an ad from Henry Ford who made a car from hemp. Took a sledgehammer to the doors to show how tough and resilient it was.

The medical benefits are equally impressive which is why the big drug companies are so scared of it. It's better than Ambien for sleep, better than opiods for chronic pain, better than Valium and Zanax for anxiety, better than aspirin for inflammation, etc. The list goes on and on. And it does this without all of the massive side effects that most official drugs carry.

Do you know that no one in the history of the world has died from a cannabis overdose? That's because there are no cannabininoid receptors on the brain stem that regulates the automatic body systems like breathing and heart pumping. That's the cause of opioid and other drug deaths. Take too much and it slows your breathing too much and you suffocate to death. Nice. They don't highlight that feature in the ads I see all the time.

And all for a plant most of us could grow in our gardens and not have to buy their commercial poison at the exorbitant prices with all of their side effects which can be treated with yet more drugs with their own side effects which can be treated with yet more drugs and the loop goes on and on. I get that they have to make a profit but they have systematically suppressed actual cures for things that interfere with their money. There's much more money in treating a disease for a lifetime than there is in curing it.

And then, hemp seeds are one of the most nutritious foods on the planet. Incredible plant which is why so many corporate interests are lined up against it.

Once the drug companies have found a way to patent the cannabis molecules we'll all be amazed at the incredible discoveries they've made with this plant.

 

[Canachris]

Very interesting thread. I don't think I've seen anything new about the medical or recreational laws. But what I find very interesting is the advertising for the Gambling industry. gambling is much more harmful an destructive to young people and families. yet the day online gambling was legalize in this state the advertising went crazy, TV commercials radio commercials. Yet after like 10 years of medical and recreational cannabis sale's with no issues I've never seen any advertising for a dispensary. Cannabis is not addictive I've never heard of anybody destroying their family savings to feed a cannabis habit. Gambling is as bad as a opioid addiction. I know this went off track from the thread but all the betting advertising has me pissed off

 

[bluter]

Anecdotes, anything… informative, engaging, enlightening or just plain entertaining… if you’re willing.

would be nice to hear about the medical folk.

i used to be active around the issue on the medical side. one effect of cdn legalization has been the death of any medical approach. most of the folk who were involved in the country were purposely sidelined and shut out when the industry became commercial.

the current focus is completely opposite to the grass roots approaches sought by those who were originally involved.

having worked in the alcohol industry we were well aware of the model that both corporate and gov't was pushing for and got. it's kind of a mess.

 

[Canachris]

I think it would be interesting to see an anti-propaganda type film.

The reason it's illegal is an interesting backstory. Basically racism financed by corporate interests. The politicians wanted to prevent the Mexican immigrants and blacks from voting and that campaign was financed by William Randolf Hearst who wanted to protect the financial interests of the timberlands he owned that supplied pulp to make his newspapers (turns out hemp is at least 5-10x more efficient in producing pulp for paper than trees. Also it's an annual crop so you don't have to wait decades for a usable crop) .

Fast forward to today and it's mostly the big drug companies and for-profit prison companies doing the funding. And its all built on lies.

Cannabis is a Schedule 1 drug which by definition means it is highly addictive (lie) and has no known medical benefits (lie). The government actually holds a patent on the medical benefits.

So they just make stuff up, propagandize the crap put of it and most people are too lazy to actually learn the reality themselves so they just accept what is fed to them.

I'd like to see a documentary that pulls back the curtain. Hemp is an incredible plant. Many times more productive than trees for pulp and paper, and can be made into a multitude of products. Could actually replace fossil fuels for many (most) of that compounds' uses. I saw an ad from Henry Ford who made a car from hemp. Took a sledgehammer to the doors to show how tough and resilient it was.

The medical benefits are equally impressive which is why the big drug companies are so scared of it. It's better than Ambien for sleep, better than opiods for chronic pain, better than Valium and Zanax for anxiety, better than aspirin for inflammation, etc. The list goes on and on. And it does this without all of the massive side effects that most official drugs carry.

Do you know that no one in the history of the world has died from a cannabis overdose? That's because there are no cannabininoid receptors on the brain stem that regulates the automatic body systems like breathing and heart pumping. That's the cause of opioid and other drug deaths. Take too much and it slows your breathing too much and you suffocate to death. Nice. They don't highlight that feature in the ads I see all the time.

And all for a plant most of us could grow in our gardens and not have to buy their commercial poison at the exorbitant prices with all of their side effects which can be treated with yet more drugs with their own side effects which can be treated with yet more drugs and the loop goes on and on. I get that they have to make a profit but they have systematically suppressed actual cures for things that interfere with their money. There's much more money in treating a disease for a lifetime than there is in curing it.

And then, hemp seeds are one of the most nutritious foods on the planet. Incredible plant which is why so many corporate interests are lined up against it.

Once the drug companies have found a way to patent the cannabis molecules we'll all be amazed at the incredible discoveries they've made with this plant.

if not for cannabis I probably would have committed suicide by now. The side effects from all the anti-seizure med I take start off with "depression anxiety and suicidal thoughts". I can tuff it out a few days without any cannabis but the depression and anxiety make me want to give up. my DR suggest anti-anxiety meds with a anti-depression meds... that come along with their own side effects. but a toke or two calms the anxiety and relieves depression. With cannabis the only side effect for me is dry mouth, and that just makes me drink more water... we all know how bad drinking water is, hope I don't drownd

 

[Tokin Roll]

Welcome to 420 Magazine @sandes

Have you tried to grow cannabis?
What type of growing would you like to learn?

Here's some helpful info: Welcome New Members - Please Read Before Posting

Here is some information if you would like to start a grow journal How to Make a Grow Journal

If you want to see want other growers are doing, here's that link.

This is where you place your grow journal.

Journals in Progress: Current and Ongoing

And, after you have over 50 posts you can vote and enter our contests to win free grow stuff from our sponsors.

420 Contests: Win Cool 420 Prizes

Stay safe, and grow well my friend,

Tok..

 

[sandes]

Dispensary Owner in San Francisco Brags of Ripping Off Farmers | 420 MAGAZINE ®

Dispensary Owner in San Francisco Brags of Ripping Off Farmers

A San Francisco dispensary owner has been exposed boasting about how he has made 'hundreds of thousands of dollars' by ripping off cannabis farmers - as

www.420magazine.com

I read that article, *Nick Hardy. It strikes the nerve.

As a younger man I worked as a Research Assistant to a Member of Parliament, in Ottawa Canada; I left the job out of Political Expediency. That is to say that it felt as though everything I tried to do with the information I researched ran against the grain of the politically expedient. I was over my head in politics so I lit out to study media at the Metropolitan (formerly Ryerson), in Toronto. I deemed that our politicians were merely tap dancing to the tune most played on the TV or News. I figured that is where the power, that is where the influence lies, in Educational Media. Well back then I was young, hot headed and I often wish I’d kept that job if only for the pension. But of course that is one of the problems with the culture of our Governments and there is only We, The People to blame for it. As for educational media, we as often call that propaganda and it depends on what side of the fence you stand, *Azimuth.

Ultimately I found our elected officials to be the hardest working dogs in show business but governing the nation is like herding cats. And cats want it all, your shelter, your food, your attention, your affection until they want nothing to do with you at all. One moment you're petting and preening them, they're pumped up and purring and then sinking their claws into your legs and lashing out at your arms. Our politicians make a great living, enjoy a high standard of accommodation and they keep that job by holding your attention in a favourable light. We need to remember to direct them like dogs and not pander to them like cats.

What I mean is... we the people must form an authoritative consensus before we the people can expect to influence the law makers who craft the regulations which govern this industry. And that brings me back to retread as an educator. We cannot expect to influence the lawmaker unless we can defend a better practice, can de-fence and consolidate a broader community, create a vocal and effective consensus behind an initiative. The terms viral and swarming come to mind but those events can be as reliable as setting backfires. we need to create a lobby of sorts because the Gov't is our competition but the Big Business lobby is.

I am interested in the Substack platform and a fellow named Jonathon Haidtt, a professor of ethics who is researching the effects of social media on adolescents and proofing his research in public on, About - After Babel. Is this a model?

Excuse me, I'm thinking out loud now... and my stomach is growling even louder... I'm going to go make some breakfast.

Good morning

 

[sandes]

Dispensary Owner in San Francisco Brags of Ripping Off Farmers

A San Francisco dispensary owner has been exposed boasting about how he has made 'hundreds of thousands of dollars' by ripping off cannabis farmers - as

www.420magazine.com

The above and twenty different versions of it.

My wife and I are Mom and Pop, well we’re in Thailand so probably Maymay and Papa, growers in Thailand, out of your geographical interest but its the same story.

They legalised here. We got grow and dispensary licenses and I fortunately haven’t tallied what I’ve spent but lets say $10k USD and sorted it like a full time job (fortunately I already had several of those to pay for it all)

The dispensary owners laughed at us trying to sell at even much above the cost of the just the electricity and nutes let alone allowing for labour, trim, packaging because they were buying illegal imports from California mostly. Government has done nothing to stop this - its a tourist town. If you had to put a flag of origin on it most I reckon but choose Thai grown, an imperfect analogy but you’re not going to go on holiday to Italy and look out for a Dominos Pizza, are you? the dispensaries are majority owned by young Europeans with Thai front staff, Russians mostly. So the people making money (They buy for less than a dollar a gram such is the glut) aren’t even Thai.

Now after 18 months they look like they’re gonna ban it again this week. They want big companies, rumour is two. With beer there are two - there could be a third as long as you guarantee 100m litres of sale per month. So weed - as long as you guarantee a 100kg a month and you invest $50m. Bye bye the rest of you.

We entered the business in good faith. Spent a lot of time on it. By the end of next month we’ll have finished and have on hand maybe 10kg and yet another 10kg a little after that.

What are we meant to do with that? Who’s gonna reimburse us for our investment costs and all that weed we have we can’t sell it.

Thailand is an agrarian country still. It was pitched as a cash crop as much as anything. Looks like the only people gonna make any cash are the dispensary owners already made it and the two existing conglomerates that given licences.

Some version of this has happened certainly in the US and I guess Canada, though you’d know better than me.

So yeah. Sucks basically. You’ll find people like us all over the world. One of my best mates has been growing illegally at huge scale in his home country, outdoor/greenhouse. His wife was Thai so he moved here, bought a huge chunk of land, 8 greenhouses 20x60m and planted thousands of plants. His greenhouse was better than what the dispensaries were selling as indoor Cali.

Grew hundreds of kilos. Sold 30 or something? Closed it all up and moved back to his country and started again.

We got no protection from the government and they’re now giving the industry away to other people.

Sucks.

mentioned you in the thread... above

 

[sandes]

I think it would be interesting to see an anti-propaganda type film.

watch The Union ...

Mentioned you in the thread... above

 

[sandes]

Welcome to 420 Magazine @sandes

Have you tried to grow cannabis?
What type of growing would you like to learn?

My wife has a license to grow my medicinal but we are not growing right now. I know people who are growing at an industrial scale and feel inhibited by regulations set forth by Health Canada, the overseeing authority in this country. I'd be interested to hear from anyone in Europe; what's the consensus there?

 

[NickHardy]

Is you type an @ before a members name like @sandes

It will try and autocomplete and we’ll get a notification.

 

[Hash Hound]

Hi there sandes

I'm not sure I'm understanding your bottom line. Are you wanting to make a documentary or film (tell a story)?