Filmmakers Rod Pitman and Stephen Chaffin, two Portland State undergraduates, have sought to capture America’s pro-Marijuana movement in the documentaries Hempsters: Plant the Seed and NORML Life.
The films received worldwide distribution by Cinema Libre within six weeks of each other and feature stars like Woody Harrelson, Willie Nelson, Ralph Nader and members of The Doors.
Filmmakers Rod Pitman and Stephen Chaffin, two Portland State undergraduates, have sought to capture America’s pro-Marijuana movement in the documentaries Hempsters: Plant the Seed and NORML Life.
The films received worldwide distribution by Cinema Libre within six weeks of each other and feature stars like Woody Harrelson, Willie Nelson, Ralph Nader and members of The Doors.
Hempsters is about the legalization of industrial hemp, according to Pitman.
“A group of people were being arrested for planting hemp seeds, so we filmed these arrests and tell the story about the history of hemp,” he said. “It’s about the sustainability of hemp more than anything.”
The production of Hempsters, which involved 25 Oregonians, began fifteen years before the film was finally released. Pitman and Chaffin worked alongside director Michael Henning to acquire footage across the country for the documentary’s release on June 28.
“Film work is not all glitz and glory,” said Chaffin, recalling the endurance needed to make the film. “It’s a lot of tedious work, but I love doing it.”
After Hempsters, Pitman decided to tackle his own film. He went on to direct NORML Life, which was released on Aug. 16. Shot for two weeks across the West Coast and Washington, D.C., the film was picked up by the Producers Guild of America. The guild held a special screening to promote the movie.
The film is based on the 40-year-old lobbying group NORML, which has been attempting to reduce criminal penalties for the possession of marijuana for medicinal and recreational use.
“We focused primarily on the patients using it for medical use, on the fight for people to have the right to use medical marijuana in a responsible way and to decriminalize possession of responsible marijuana users,” Pitman said.
Executive Producer Doug Ross explained the correlation of the subject matter in both movies to how the U.S. has changed over the years.
“In the old days, you have the image of the hippie getting high,” Ross said. “If you look at the different patients that you see in the film, they’re middle class, run-of-the-mill people that you see in the street.”
He added that medical marijuana has become normal in some American lives. With their attempt to provide clarity and an educational point of view on medical marijuana, Pitman and Chaffin hope that viewers watch these films with an open mind.
“If you look at something open-mindedly, you leave more possibilities to be empathetic,” Chaffin said.
