cannabisnews.com: New Pot Documentary Grass Not Just for Chronic Fan New Pot Documentary Grass Not Just for Chronic Fan Posted by FoM on August 16, 2000 at 07:45:10 PT By Peter Debruge, Daily Texan U. Texas-Austin Source: U-WIRE Ron Mann, the director of Grass, laughed when I told him I'd never smoked pot. "You're the second person who's told me that," he said, a bit incredulously, though genuinely pleased to learn I'd sought out his movie nonetheless. You see, I'm the kind of person who perfectly fits Mann's target audience, someone naively raised over the course of two decades in which the government spent $250 billion on drug prohibition and anti-drug propaganda. I'd seen what my brain would look like on drugs, and I didn't have any questions. "The film was not made for promoting pot smoking," Mann explained. "It was made to get behind the idea that if people want to smoke pot, they should have the right to smoke pot without police harassment or being thrown in jail for something they see as a pleasure. I think it creates political discussion. I made the film so that the issue is put forward." The issue at stake: Why is marijuana illegal? We've all been exposed to media that "answer" that question, and Grass gleefully reminds us of their exaggerated claims: If you smoke pot, you will kill people ... you will go INSANE ... you will become a heroin addict! But Grass goes one step further. It dares to address the true "why" of that question by acutely using rare, telling footage to chronicle the political motivations behind a century of marijuana prohibition in the United States. "I managed to piece together something that would introduce the younger audience to the legislative history of recreational use of pot," Mann said. "I wanted to tell them how marijuana laws were used against minorities, to control undesirables, how it was used against blacks, Mexicans, hippies and political activists. It's important taking a look at the escalating costs of the war on marijuana, not just in human lives, but also in the money that's being wasted. That's an argument I think you can make: Look at the results of where that money goes and what the benefit really is." Naturally, the idea for Grass began as an untold number of cinema's more curious concepts undoubtedly have: over a joint. "I was sitting around smoking pot with a friend of mine when we started thinking about how marijuana became criminalized," Mann explained. "It reminded me of a book I read called Reefer Madness, a biography of National Bureau of Narcotics commissioner Harry J. Anslinger. ... There hasn't been a real historical overview of marijuana prohibition in one place. The Reefer Madness book only went up to the '70s, so I did some research into another book called The Marijuana Conviction and started to piece together the story. Then I went beyond the books to their raw research. I went to Penn State and spent two weeks going through the Harry Anslinger archives." Mann's research led him to a variety of rare clips that had been stashed away in special collections and television station vaults, including a number of failed takes and bloopers that had been preserved. Among the more effective relics sampled in Grass are a silent film called High on the Range, a TV interview with a cigarette-smoking police officer who can't seem to satisfy his craving for nicotine and a priceless public service announcement delivered by a very sloshed Sonny Bono. "I didn't make this up! These are real artifacts we are using," Mann stressed. "If you look at it, there's a silent movie, a B movie, a social guidance film, and there's a TV commercial. This propaganda is appearing in many different forms of media, all of it geared for a specific purpose, which is to justify these insane laws that America has been putting down. "Now, what I do is usurp the meaning of the original propaganda films and turn it so it is actually used for ironic juxtaposition. There's no actual footage of people smoking pot; it's illegal, so no one wants to be on camera smoking pot. I had to draw from existing artifacts, so a lot of the footage I found or used was staged for whatever it was originally intended." Footage of respectable figures "caught" in clumsy moments Richard Nixon rolling a gutter ball as he bowls at home, "stand-in" President Gerald Ford stumbling as he disembarks from an airplane and Ronald Reagan citing memory loss as a side effect of "the most dangerous drug in America" provide easy laughs and help undermine political authority on the issue throughout. The effect may not be entirely fair, though audiences seem to get a kick out of such low blows in the sparring match the film creates. "The form is collage, and it's a form that my mentor Emile de Antonio used," Mann said. "One of the films that had been powerful to me was [de Antonio's] Point of Order!, where he took 50 hours of the Army-McCarthy hearings and put it together like a Shakespearean tragedy. A lot of it has to do with the style of documentary films, which is just interview-illustration, interview-illustration. Everything gets reduced to television and TV journalism, and it doesn't become cinema anymore for me. I try to use the essay form, which is more of an academic form, and it's sort of personal." Mann assembles the clips he collected into a fast-moving, punchy timeline that dolefully mourns each piece of anti-marijuana prohibition to pass and wildly celebrates the occasional victory. Though Mann relies entirely on existing footage, he jazzed up the mix with a rational commentary narrated by hemp advocate Woody Harrelson, elaborate animated title cards designed by underground cartoonist and rabid SubGenius supporter Paul Mavrides, enhanced audio effects and an energetic pop soundtrack that spans a century of music celebrating the forbidden weed. "I've found that with non-narrative, even though Harrelson's the voice of the film, you have to use other artifacts, like music," he said. "The narrative of the songs support the narrative of the film, the song lyrics become another voice." With all its controversy-bucking bravado, Grass still works as an educational film, a multimedia maelstrom that's far more informative and entertaining than any of the sources from which it borrows. For experts on the issue, Grass offers more revisionist fun than you'll ever find sitting through another campy screening of Reefer Madness. For those unfamiliar with the arguments for the decriminalization of marijuana, Grass fairly presents the side of the story few media or entertainment personalities have the courage to endorse. And for a progressive town like Austin which hosted the film's national premiere last spring at the SXSW film festival Grass should prove to be a potent little movie. "Austin was first described to me as a 'pot friendly' town," Mann laughed, "but it turned out to be more of a 'pot enthusiastic' crowd at SXSW. They raised the roof, a very vocal crowd. You feel like a rock star, getting stopped by people wanting to turn me on everywhere I go." Updated 12:00 PM ET August 15, 2000 (U-WIRE) Austin, Texas (C) 2000 Daily Texan via U-WIRE Copyright © 2000 At Home Corporation. Grass The Movie - A Ron Mann Filmhttp://www.grassthemovie.com/CannabisNews Search for Grass The Movie:http://cannabisnews.com/thcgi/search.pl?K=Grass+Movie Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #6 posted by FoM on August 21, 2000 at 13:03:58 PT Film Review of Saving Grace - Real Audio http://apps.tvplex.go.com/ebertandthemovies/audioplayer.cgi?file=SavingGrace [ Post Comment ] Comment #5 posted by FoM on August 16, 2000 at 22:08:40 PT Saving Grace Hi everyone! I just saw another preview on tv of this movie and I went and found the web site.Here's Saving Grace's Web Site! Saving Gracehttp://www.saving-grace-movie.com/index_static.htmlMake Your Garden Growhttp://www.makeyourgardengrow.com/index_flash.html [ Post Comment ] Comment #4 posted by FoM on August 16, 2000 at 09:46:30 PT Saving Grace Last night on BRAVO they were showing WoodStock. It was great to see again and then they showed a trailer of Saving Grace. It looks like a really good British movie. You should have seen her garden! LOL! Saving Grace Delivers Delightful Comic High http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread6687.shtml [ Post Comment ] Comment #3 posted by kaptinemo on August 16, 2000 at 09:40:57 PT: The power of parody should never be underestimated. After all, aren't stereotypes a parody? Isn't the stereortype of the 'typical' cannabis user (disheveled, dirty, long-haired, eyes like two rolled-up balls of bacon, incapable of communication short of interjections like "Wow, Man!" served as the basis for McCaffrey's crack about 'Cheech and Chong medicine'.) constantly used against us? Wasn't a parody of Blacks and Hispanics used to justify the damn laws in the first place? 'The effect may not be entirely fair, though audiences seem to get a kick out of such low blows in the sparring match the film creates.'Unfair? What was done to us was unfair; what was done to the *nations* was unfair; what was done to the *planet* was unfair. For too long, we cannabis consumers have been the target of highly effective propaganda based upon a parody. Laws based upon those parodies have caused enormous suffering and occasional deaths. It's long past time we returned the favor.The effect is unfair? Unfair? [ Post Comment ] Comment #2 posted by Natrous on August 16, 2000 at 08:38:43 PT I agree I've been hearing about this film for a long time, and every time I do I want to see it more! Does anyone know of anywhere I can even get clips of it? [ Post Comment ] Comment #1 posted by Mari on August 16, 2000 at 08:31:59 PT GRASS I am so eager to see this movie!Is there any chance of it coming to SW Missouri?Or,even better,when will it be available on VHS or DVD for purchase?I MUST own this.I know a few drug counslers I want to show it too.LOL [ Post Comment ] Post Comment Name: Optional Password: E-Mail: Subject: Comment: [Please refrain from using profanity in your message] Link URL: Link Title: