This segment of Hempen Road documentary is a bit different so calling a “bonus” clip… rather than interviews with hemp cannabis pioneers, activists, entrepreneurs etc, this one features my rather poetic (according to HempWorld magazine’s review) soliloquies about broken promises to land, societies and neglect of culture along with Eiji’s stellar mixed-media cinematography and montage editing as we worked our way up and around the glorious Olympic peninsula with a stop to gaze at the albatross of Satsop nuclear chimneys, struggling and damaged reservation land.
Then comes a stop in scenic and absurdly charming Victorian-era port town appropriately called Port Townsend (as this was as far as sailing ships could make it before steam power came along and made the the place irrelevant for decades – now its bustling, then was perfect…) for a look around.
Note: we filmed a segment with PT Hemp Co (you’ll notice their 2nd floor store in the clip) but wasn’t able to use and now the footage is “lost” in a shoebox somewhere due to Eiji’s untimely demise.
Then, head off towards Vancouver via various ferries for the “big finish” of the filming and film with 16mm B&W footage of seagulls winging through the air. Sigh.
Another note: music in this clip are both faves as well. The spacey “Ry Cooder-esque” one is “Desert in my Toenails” (or something like that) by Chris Sullivan who i knew in Utah, he was from Kentucky, played all sorts of instruments, left our band to catch crabs in Alaska and still rambles with various bands and places. The outro song is Chris Jacobsen who i knew in Guam, a Rhode Islander boat cap’n with a zany sense of humour but an air of melancholy around him. I’ve tried to track him down to no avail. Notably, both of these were captured from cassette tapes, recorded on 4 tracks (still have the originals i think).
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Artifacts, Background, Technical notes at:
* Daveostory – https://daveostory.com/category/film-vids-docs/hempenroad-documentary/
* IMdb – https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9839016/
View full-length documentary at:
- Youtube – https://youtu.be/-zph6xDAc-g
- Vimeo – https://vimeo.com/122077349
- Reelhouse – https://www.reelhouse.org/uncleweed/hempenroad/
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- Filmed 1996
- Released 1997
- Digitized 2007
- Chapter Edit 2020
thanks for Pete Word and Bread Rees for various archiving assists
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Additional chapters include:
- Victoria, BC, Canada
- Olympia, WA, USA
- Eugene, OR, USA
- Portland, OR, USA
- Seattle, WA, USA
- Vancouver, BC, Canada
with entrepreneurs, activists, scientists, farmers, pioneers etc.
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With Special Dedication To:
- Misa and Naoyo
- Robert Lunday (rip)
- Eiji Masuda (rip)
Fondly, daveo / Okayama, Japan, April 2020
