Movies and cannabis go hand in hand, and celebrating them both together makes for quite the experience, especially when it’s in a city whose cannabis culture is unfortunately still very much underground. Thankfully, the NYC Cannabis Film Festival was able to make it happen with yet another great event for the 2nd year running, and we were fortunate enough to be there to capture it all.
Once again the trendy Wythe Hotel in Brooklyn’s artsy Williamsburg neighborhood played host, with big-name cannabis sponsors such as Leafly, as well as smaller up-and-coming ones like Cloudy Day Supplies, Intuitive Instruments, and others coming on board to show their support. There was even CBD-buttered popcorn sponsored by CC Gregibles, and while it didn’t get you high like regular THC-infused edibles (for obvious legal reasons), it certainly was delicious.
So why New York and, more specifically, Brooklyn, as a home for a cannabis-themed film festival when the city and state are so far behind others when it comes to legalization? Well, according to festival director and co-founder Tim Mattson, “It’s definitely not the first city you’d think of when it comes to celebrating cannabis, but what about the underground jazz clubs and tea pads that used to be all over NYC? When I first moved here in 2001, I thought it was already legal, I could smell it on the streets in just about every neighborhood. Even midtown!”
Indeed you could, and still do, and that, combined with the involvement of High NY, a popular cannabis-focused Meetup group dedicated to the growth and hopeful legalization of cannabis in New York, made the city and Brooklyn a perfect place to showcase films touching on the still very much taboo topic.
“The Wythe Hotel was already friendly with us through our High NY group,” Mattson says, “and the hotel theater had even hosted High Times once before. Because of that we figured we’d inquire, and, sure enough, it was the perfect match! Out of all the boroughs in New York, Brooklyn is definitely the most cannabis-friendly.”
As for the films themselves, there were certainly a nice variety of genres represented, with documentaries like Tocha Alves’s The Summer of Cans, the Best Documentary Feature winner chronicling a Brazil summer in 1987 where cans containing 1.5 kg of high-quality, pressed marijuana surfaced along some of the hippest beaches in Sao Paulo and Rio, as well as several feature films, including Best Narrative Feature winner Dark Harvest, a film by James Hutson featuring Cheech & Chong’s Cheech Marin as a seasoned cannabis grower mentoring another grower in search for his partner’s killer. Apparently it was also Cheech’s first film since his last Cheech & Chong movie, Get Out of My Room, back in 1985.
So what’s next for the festival? “Bigger and better,” says Mattson. “Next year we’ll be in a much bigger venue in Manhattan along with a lot more features and short films spread over a full 3-day weekend rather than just a single day. We even have some special guests and celebrities in the works, including a possible appearance by known cannabis activist and aficionado Woody Harrelson himself.”
Sounds exciting, and we’re super pumped to hopefully come on board and help. Events like this are extremely important in helping to quash the misguided and misinformed negative stigma that cannabis still carries in many cities and countries throughout the world. We need to do more together to debunk this ridiculous misconception and show the world that cannabis, just like alcohol, cigarettes, caffeine, and other adult pleasures, can be enjoyed responsibly in a fun, friendly, mature, and, most importantly, safe, adult environment. And together we will.
Photography by David Matthew Walters, courtesy of the NYC Cannabis Film Festival
