Casey Casseday – The Green Rush
Independent Film Quarterly (IFQ) caught up with filmmaker Casey Casseday to discuss
his film The Green Rush, a documentary showing the realization of growing medical
marijuana by documenting weed farmers for a whole growing period. The Green Rush was shown at the IFQ Film and Webisode Festival and nabbed Best Documentary. ITN Distribution picked up the film because of its solid content and amazing execution. IFQ wanted to know how ‘green’ Casseday got in filming the project.
Independent Film Quarterly (IFQ): During the grow season that you witnessed, how well did you get to know the farmers? And did that experience change your outlook on marijuana?
Casey Casseday (CC): During our year in the pot fields, we were able to gain the full trust of all the growers. I consider all of them family and we still stay in contact with them and they check-in often. It went from having to regain their trust every time we came back up to their world, to a relationship now where we reminisce about the old (wild) times. My outlook on the pot trade
has forever changed thanks to their openness/willingness to give us access to their very insider
way of life. If the rest of the world knew what I now know about growers, it would already be legal.
IFQ: Do you feel like weed growers get commonly thought of as drug cartel people?
CC: Yes, I feel that the majority of people (left and right) still think of them as “dope dealers.” Even people who are for legalization of cannabis/hemp (marijuana), still believe the growers are getting rich, which simply is not the case. They all take enormous personal risks to deliver medical marijuana to the patients of California. They are fighting the fight our federal government refuses to and by doing so they are more patriotic than the average citizen. They are doing what nobody else wants to do and in doing so, the topic of medical marijuana is becoming more and more of a mainstream issue worldwide.
IFQ: What do you hope people take away from your documentary?
CC: We started this project to show that there are actual human beings with feelings and emotions who risk everything to get people their weed. I’d like audiences to see this medical marijuana issue now as less of a political issue, and more of an entrepreneurial uprising. To know that their marijuana comes from hardworking, passionate Californians who are operating within the existing laws. To not judge them and poke stoner fun at them, but to understand what is really happening here over the past 15 years. Growers grow to feed their families, just like you.
IFQ: Did you witness any violence while filming?
CC: No, we didn’t witness any violence over the course of the whole outdoor season (8 months). These are peace loving people growing with state and county permits on their own land. While a few do carry legally registered guns and all at least own some kind of firearm, they did not have to fire a single shot. The more you know, the better you will begin to understand that violence is not what the legal medical marijuana grower needs in his or her life, it’s quite the opposite.
IFQ: What needs to happen in America for the federal government to recognize
the advantages to medical marijuana?
CC: Once the American inventor is finally allowed to experiment with this amazing plant, I think the cure to many of our current “plagues” (AIDS, Cancer, MS, etc.) is waiting in the shadows. Once it is proven to reduce tumors, to prevent many currently incurable diseases, then it will become acceptable in the eyes of the government. Unfortunately, they are fighting
its production at any cost, in order to continue the DEA’s war on drugs. You couldn’t make marijuana more available if you tried. Anyone who lives on the West Coast knows this to be fact. The government is missing out on billions of tax dollars for America’s number one cash crop! And in the meantime, they are spending billions to fight what is already common out here.
IFQ: How reluctant were the farmers in letting you and your crew into their
private operation?
CC: We had some bumps along the way gaining their full trust, but (as I said) became very close friends by the end. Even with the tragedies that happened to all of our characters, they did not believe we had anything to do with it. At first, every time we had to mic one of them up, they would start sweating and breathing hard. But by the end of the season, they were nearly as
professional as any of the hundreds of reality characters I’ve worked with over my twelve year career in Los Angeles.
IFQ: Do you feel if marijuana was 100% legal nationwide, would it become commercialized to the point that these farmers would be put out of business?
CC: I honestly believe that the quality of the pot grown up there and the native strains they own (O.G. “Ocean Grown”), cannot be replicated by a commercial outfit. I think marijuana is destined to be a cottage industry much like wine and because of the perfect environmental conditions in Northern California and the resilient type of cannabis they are growing, it will be recognized like Napa Valley.
IFQ: What’s your next project?
CC: I’ve been working on another medical marijuana documentary project called Boardwalk Hempire with Tommy Chong, Rob Van Dam and Sean Kush. It’s about the Venice Beach California Dispensary scene over the past 6-7 years. It follows the rise and fall of the Medical
Kush Beach Club in Venice. So after following the growers, I just had to dive-into (head first) the distribution model currently working in LA. The release of the film is pending the outcome of the trial against Sean Kush and we are hopefully going to get a great premier this fall (2012).