By feature film American Pot Story: Oaksterdam will have its Hollywood premiere at the Dance With Film Festival in Los Angeles on Thursday, June 29, where the event will feature weed icon Tommy Chong and a Q&A with filmmakers Dan Katzir and Lavitt Marcus. and other events are planned. The premiere continues a successful series of screenings of films depicting the cannabis legalization efforts of Oakland-based cannabis school Oaksterdam University, including January’s Slamdance film It also had its world premiere at the festival and won the prestigious Audience Award for Unstoppable Film.
American Pot Story: Oaksterdam The film follows the pivotal decade of both the pioneering cannabis college and marijuana legalization movement of two of the agency’s driving force, founder Richard Lee and general secretary Dale Skye-Jones. .
“In 2010, I read in a newspaper that an activist group was saying they were going to take legalized ballot measures in California,” director Dan Katzir explained in a virtual interview. “It seemed to us that the media were laughing in their faces treating them as stone throwers who thought they could change policies that could never be changed.”
A film chronicling over 10 years of activity
Katzir and Marcus followed Jones and Lee’s campaign for Proposition 19, which received nearly 47% of the vote in the 2010 ballot measure to legalize recreational marijuana in California.The effort led to the film adaptation legalizeBut Katzir said the film had a “sad ending” after the proposal failed in the polls.
“We didn’t want our journey into the world of cannabis activism to end with that sad defeat,” he continued. “We felt that the story of marijuana policy reform wasn’t over yet, so we decided to make a new film about Oaksterdam, America’s first cannabis school that turned the entirety of downtown Oakland into the center of the marijuana resistance movement. bottom.”
Ms Jones said in a phone interview that she felt she was “on the edge” of observing herself. American Pot Story: Oaksterdam When she saw the movie for the first time. But overall she is very happy with the results.
“I’m so proud of the story they were able to tell,” she says. “It really captured the essence of what we were trying to convey.”
To gain support for Proposition 19, the campaign will focus primarily on how marijuana prohibition and the resulting war on drugs consume resources that could be devoted to other needs, including public education. focused on.
“It’s my job to tie whatever interests you have to the war on drugs,” says Jones. “I promise you, the war on drugs is only one step away from stealing resources from the things you hold dear (including perhaps the people you hold dear).”
“Once you can draw the line between the cost of putting someone in prison and the cost of putting someone in college and more importantly in kindergarten, it really becomes real,” she added. “And I think that’s what this movie is about.”
The film also follows the development of Oaksterdam over a decade, including the 2012 DEA raid many blamed on efforts to pass Proposition 19. The film also follows the drive to draft new initiatives that have led to the legalization of cannabis. in California in 2016.
hollywood premiere this week
at the Hollywood premiere American Pot Story: Oaksterdam will take place on Thursday, June 29 at the TCL Chinese Theater on Hollywood Boulevard. dance with the movie festival. Running through July 2nd, Dances With Films will celebrate his 25th anniversary in 2023, with more than 250 films.
Following the premiere, there will be a Q&A with Katzir and Marcus, filmgoers Dale Sky Jones, Jeffrey Jones and actor Tommy Chong. Afterwards, an afterparty will be held at Teddy’s Nightclub at his Roosevelt Hotel in historic Hollywood for ticket holders and special guests.
director of American Pot Story: Oaksterdam We hope the film will be screened at additional events over the summer, and have applied for consideration at several other film festivals. They are also vying to be picked by the streaming platform, and Katzir said fans can support that process by following the film. Instagram and Facebook.
