35 years after Nixon started the war on drugs, we have over one million non-violent drug offenders living behind bars.
The War on Drugs has become the longest and most costly war in American history, the question has become, how much more can the country endure? Inspired by the death of four family members from “legal drugs” Texas filmmaker Kevin Booth sets out to discover why the Drug War has become such a big failure. Three and a half years in the making, the film follows gang members, former DEA agents, CIA officers, narcotics officers, judges, politicians, prisoners and celebrities.
Most notably the film befriends Freeway Ricky Ross; the man many accuse for starting the Crack epidemic, who after being arrested discovered that his cocaine source had been working for the CIA.
AMERICAN DRUG WAR shows how money, power and greed have corrupted not just drug pushers and dope fiends, but an entire government. More importantly, it shows what can be done about it. This is not some ‘pro-drug’ stoner film, but a collection of expert testimonials from the ground troops on the front lines of the drug war, the ones who are fighting it and the ones who are living it.
After 4 years of production including several sold out test screenings in New York, Austin & Los Angeles, the final version of American Drug War “the last white hope” is locked and loaded.
Title: American Drug War – The Last White Hope
Director: Kevin Booth
Running time: 120 min
File: AVI XVID 576×432, 1394MB
Language: English
Year: 2007
Watch here! > link or Download here! > link or link
“American Drug War is the most realistic documentary I have ever been featured in. For the first time ever, someone has finally kicked open the dark closet of America’s drug epidemic. Now the world can finally see the whole truth; why tons of drugs make it across US borders and why the United States prison population is the largest in the world… there has never been a war on drugs; the truth is America has declared war on its own citizens.”
- Freeway Ricky Ross – former L.A. Drug Kingpin
“There is no doubt in my mind that those that are conscious, those that are hit, those that are struck by this film, that this film puts a call to action in them. We are definitely going to see some things… the truths in this film cannot be denied.”
- T Rodgers, original co-founder of the Bloods street gang
Reviews
CBS Radio (PDF)
AMERICAN DRUG WAR
FOUR STARS (Highest Rating). A mind-altering experience. This is an exceedingly important documentary. It makes a clear case for why the so-called ‘war on drugs’ has been — and will continue to be — such a colossal failure. We have spent billions upon billions of dollars trying to prevent the influx of substances so many Americans demand to have, and the availability of illicit drugs is at an all-time high.
This ‘war on drugs’ is one of the worst examples of our government’s embarrassing close-mindedness and immaturity, not to mention lack of sophistication, bravery, and foresight.
The film depicts the hypocrisy of this failed policy: marijuana and cocaine are illegal, yet alcohol and tobacco are perfectly legal, these latter two substances having caused more damage and ruination than any other substances to which our government has given its stamp of approval.
And speaking of hypocrisy, the film also chronicles the Iran Contra scandal, our government’s sickening, morally debauched effort to actually facilitate the introduction of illegal drugs into society, utilizing the profits to finance a wholly illegal military operation.
While Booth quite understandably argues that this ‘war’ is a ludicrous waste, he is open-minded and intellectually honest enough to show the devastation that drugs (mostly of the legal variety) have wreaked upon close friends and members of his family. So, in the end, he presents a wide-ranging, multi-faceted look at the problem: Yes, drugs destroy lives, but this ‘war’ has proven to be a meaningless and ill-conceived solution. There’s so much to consider here, and Kevin Booth has done an outstanding job of providing the appropriate fodder for contemplation and, hopefully, political action.
– Todd David SchwartzContributing Arts & Entertainment Critic, The Paul Mitchell Show, CBS Radio
The Texas Observer (Blog Article) By Brad Tyer
This Is Your War On Drugs
Got pot? If so, take comfort that you’re one of an estimated 80 million Americans who’ve at least tried the supposedly dangerous Schedule 1 drug, But do you know where your drug money actually goes? Is it funding terrorists, as the post-9/11 advertising campaign would have you believe?
Well, no, according to American Drug War: The Last White Hope, a compellingly researched new documentary by Austin filmmaker Kevin Booth that does an admirable job of following the money.
In the case of the United States’ war on drugs, the modern incarnation of which was launched by Richard Nixon in 1971, Booth makes the case that the ostensible battle is more accurately an economic incentive program for the private prison industry, funded out of self-interest by the Partnership for a Drug Free America (essentially a front group for legal drug industries, i.e. pharmaceuticals, alcohol, and tobacco) and waged by a series of increasingly ineffective administration-appointed Drug Czars, including current title-holder John Walters. You’ve never heard of him, Booth argues, because the current drug economy is working the way it should: drugs are flowing, prisons are full, and Wall Street is happy.
In painting this ugly picture, Booth traces the connections between the Iran/Contra debacle, infamous Los Angeles street dealer Ricky Ross, controversial CIA-cocaine connection journalist Gary Webb, Oliver North, Panamanian henchman Manuel Noriega, Phoenix’s tough-love anti-drug sheriff Joe Arpaio, pro-pot comedian/martyr Tommy Chong, the PATRIOT ACT, and the equally inscrutable war of terror.
Along the way, Booth questions why Afghanistan’s heroin production actually increased after the American invasion, gives Clinton-era Drug Czar Barry McCaffrey enough on-camera rope to make him look like a self-satisfied and not entirely bright tool, recontextualizes Osama bin Laden as a drug kingpin propped up by prohibition, and makes a convincing case that the drug war is not so much winnable as fund-able. The Office of National Drug Control Policy is budgeted at $18.5 billion for 2008.
Meanwhile, the burgeoning private prison industry finds itself a beneficiary of the million-plus nonviolent drug offenders currently behind bars in the U.S.
Observer fans will be curious to see reference to staff reporter Forrest Wilder’s Daily Texan reporting on the for-profit prison industry, and yet another examination of the drug war gone awry in Tulia, told through interviews with lawyer Jeff Blackburn and recently deceased fall-guy Joe Moore.
Booth’s narrative is hardly subtle (though he does manage to make it personal by including the legal and illegal drug-related deaths of his brother and friend), and the slightly ham-handed approach (Booth would have you believe that the solution to all these problems is to be found in Amsterdam-style decriminalization of “organic” drugs like marijuana and mushrooms) does a good job of hammering home the essential point: America’s war on drugs is incredibly costly, appallingly ineffective, and irretrievably entrenched.
American Drug War is strong medicine, impeccably sourced, and the DVD – which recently took top honors in four consecutive film festivals – is due to hit stores May 27. If you already agree with its premise, you’ll find further ammunition for your next argument. And if the film’s hypothesis sounds to you like just another round of paranoid conspiracy-theorizing, you just might learn something from it.
Austin Chronicle (PDF)
What’s It Good For?Kevin Booth examines our country’s disastrous ‘War on Drugs’ BY JOSH ROSENBLATT
Six years and countless billions of dollars into the global war on terror, it’s clear we’re in this thing for the long haul. Fortunately for our current policy-makers, the United States has a little experience waging perpetual war against nebulous foes. Take our War on Drugs, now 36 going on 37, which is the perfect example of a war without end, one waged by an ideologically entrenched government against multiple invincible enemies. Each year the budget for this war grows larger, and each year it becomes more profitable for those who support it. Turns out there’s money to be made in selling supplies to people bringing drugs into this country and in incarcerating those unlucky enough to get caught holding them.
This is the tangled world director/writer/former Austinite Kevin Booth dives into with his new documentary, American Drug War: The Last White Hope, which is having its Austin premiere this Thursday, Dec. 20, at Antone’s before screening on Showtime in March. The film is a two-hour trip through the looking glass of American drug policy, taking viewers from the crack-strewn streets of Los Angeles to the meth-fueled prisons of Arizona, from the halls of Congress to Booth’s own family kitchen, in an effort to make sense of a national drug policy that manages to cost $60 billion a year and imprison 1 million nonviolent offenders yet has no discernible effect on the sale or use of drugs. Along the way, Booth introduces us to soldiers from all sides of the war (any movie that features interviews with comedian Tommy Chong, a former drug czar, and the founder of the Bloods street gang is doing something right) and takes us inside the vast, corporate prison-industrial complex/CIA-funded machine profiting off its proliferation.
If you’re beginning to suspect American Drug War is some kind of conspiracy movie (a suspicion that won’t be allayed by the fact that Thursday’s premiere is being hosted by Alex Jones), Booth assures me the facts are much more harrowing than any theory could ever be. While shooting the film over 41/2 years (during which time he saw several friends and family members die as a result of their own legal addictions to alcohol, tobacco, and over-the-counter medications), he says, “I learned that you don’t need to use conspiracy theories to expose what’s going on with our government or our world these days.”"Most generations have their own war,” he continues. “My parents fought in World War II, but what’s going on with this new era of corporatism really is our generation’s war. When private corporations become responsible for imprisoning us, sickening us, looting us, I think it’s a war.” In other words, the Drug War now exists on three fronts: the war against the distributors, the war against the users, and now the war by concerned Americans against government institutions and corporate entities profiting off the casualties of fronts one and two. Who needs bin Laden when we’ve got ourselves to fight?
Wallingford Neighbors for Peace and Justice
What an incredible film you’ve produced. We had a nearly SRO crowd of about 160 folks. This was on the evening of the last public testimony at the FCC hearings (scheduled by our commissioners with only a few days notice), and I thought the crowd would be unusually light. Thousands did go to the hearings and we still had a crowd. Clearly there is a hunger for information on this subject.
This is a much longer film than we usually show, but all were still glued to the screen to the end. I haven’t seen a film that covered the breadth of a topic like this one in a very long time.
Our panelists all had great points to make and complemented the film well, bringing the issue home to Seattle and Washington State; but the LEAP representative, Matt McCally, was incredible with his very clear explanation of the absurdity of our current drug laws. Council Member Larry gusset discussed the hard statistical facts as they impact us here, as well.
I think that many were not aware of the depth and impact of this drug war. Even some of our savvy political folks where taken aback by some of the information on the Iran Contra affair, particularly the history of Ricky Ross. Our facilitator, Sunil Aggarwal, a researcher in medical geography, esp cannabinoids, thought that the portions on psychedelics, medical applications, and the death and dying aspects were particularly good.
Many had great comments on the bitter-sweet humor in the Sherriff Joe Arpaio story. The testimony of Judge Gray could have been a film all by itself – incredible. The street scenes and interviews were profound. It’s amazing that you got the coverage you did (in all portions of the film). Glad you’re still with us!
Thanks again for such an incredible film. And for allowing us to be part of it.
All the very best!
Rick TurnerWallingford Neighbors for Peace and Justice
Cinephelia.com
Title: American Drug WarDirector: Kevin BoothCountry: United StatesRating: 8Reviewer: C Dempsey
America. Home of the free, home of the brave and home of excess. We like to eat, we like to fuck and more importantly we like to get fucked up. Drugs have become a part of our very foundation. Apple pie has given way to China white. A great pudding recipe handed down from your grandmother will get you nowhere, but a solid crystal meth recipe handed down from your uncle Carl will get you everywhere. Is it sad? I’m not sure, but it is a long way from happy. Just in my lifetime drug use has come out from behind closed doors, stereotypes of users have been abolished, it is in the media, it is a part of the people we are… and all of this happened while an invisible war has been in action.
American Drug War is a documentary that will show you just how well the war on drugs is going. And let me tell you it really seems to be going great. Drug use is up, education is down and all while you the taxpayer keep pouring the money in. Seriously, I knew a lot of this stuff from reading my left wing propaganda for years, but man the whole thought of our government running both sides of this war is enough to make anyone’s blood pressure rise. As with anything there are going to be non-believers as the film’s credits roll. Those same people though have the internet at their fingertips and still don’t know that it is for more than downloading music and porn. Eventually Darwin will take over and those people will phase themselves out. For the rest of us, those with a wider grasp for the bigger picture there are films like American Drug War that remind us that we aren’t along as we struggle to find truth in the bullshit.
Kevin Booth has constructed a film that is worth more than a watch. American Drug War is worth some serious frontal lobe absorption. The film moves in and out of every aspect of the growth and use of drugs in the American culture. For example, do you remember Oliver North before Fox News fame? All I could remember was his involvement in the Iran-Contra scandal… which he came out a hero. What if I told you that he could be one of the main drivers of the crack epidemic that destroyed the parts of California. I won’t tell you though, I’ll let Kevin. What if I told you that the spread of crack can be attributed to one central marketing mastermind. I won’t tell you about Freeway Ricky Ross though, I’ll let Kevin. If you can think it and it has to do with the spread of drugs Booth has it covered. The only agenda that Booth has is promoting a new kind of awareness through the facts that aren’t always presented through the media. The facts presented shed some light on the black market. You will realize that you have seen commercials for crack, that you marijuana isn’t even close to heroin and that Joe Arpaio is a delusional lunatic.
American Drug War is a serious film and yet another film that questions the intentions of the government who watches over us. The film is full of interview after interview that creates a central idea for the viewer to walk away from and break down. I loved the footage with Tommy Chong, truly a great camera capture. Booth got close to Joe Arpaio and showed me how far to the right a person can possibly go. The gem in the film to me however was the interview footage with Freeway Ricky Ross. Booth did not get into the prison to sit with Ross, the conversations take place over the phone. I believe this works out better than an actual in person would have. For some reason when you hear Ross’ voice you don’t hear a drug dealer, you hear a man. With no image for you to look at, no prison blues, Ross comes across like the common man. He comes across like a man you can believe. Maybe this fooled me, but I like to think not. I guess though that very idea on Ross sums up the movie pretty well. The film isn’t over your head, it isn’t too smart for it’s own good, it isn’t tailored for a side. The film is a question, a question in tolerance. The tolerance of American citizens putting up with the bullshit of their government versus the tolerance of the US government on it’s drug using citizens.
THCene – Martin Muncheberg “Berlin”
AMERICAN DRUG WAR
Es war fast zwei Uhr morgens, als ich Kevin Booth in Los Angeles anrief. Fur ihn war der spate Nachmittag die bevorzugte Tageszeit fur ein ausfuhrliches Gesprach uber Drogen, Politik, Versagen und seinen Film:
Obwohl ich zunachst nur eine Rohschnitt-Fassung des Films sehen konnte, erschien mir das politische Potential dieser spannenden Dokumentation gewaltig zu sein und ich war uberaus beeindruckt. Diesem Film ist ein groBes Publikum zu wunschen, da er sehr kritisch, aber auch auf unterhaltsame Weise den amerikanischen “War on Drugs” analysiert. Die Ruckschlusse aus dieser Analyse scheinen unglaublich und sind doch logisch. Und beangstigend dazu.
Text: Martin Muncheberg
English Translation
AMERICAN DRUG WAR
It was nearly two o’clock in the morning, when I called Kevin Booth in Los Angeles. For it the late afternoon was the preferential time of day for a detailed discussion over drugs, politics, failure and its film: Although I could see first only one raw cut version of the film, the political potential of this exciting documentation appeared to me to be enormous and I was extremely impressed. A large public is to be wished to this film, since it was very critically, in addition, in unterhaltsame way the American “on Drugs” analyzed. The conclusions from this analysis seem unbelievable and are nevertheless logical. And frightening to it.
Text: Martin Muencheberg
Further information: www.sacredcow.com
Ain’t it Cool News
Elston Gunn Interviews Director Kevin Booth Of AMERICAN DRUG WAR
I’m Elston Gunn…
Kevin Booth’s film AMERICAN DRUG WAR, an eye-opening and compelling examination of the war on drugs, won the Best Documentary awards at both the DIY and Evil City film festivals, the latter of which featured filmmakers Morgan Spurlock and Mary Harron as judges.
Additionally, High Times magazine gave the film four full buds, it’s highest rating (no pun intended). Booth, who authored the book BILL HICKS: AGENT OF EVOLUTION about his best friend and notable cult comedian, was inspired by the loss of those close to him to legal substances to try and make sense of what is dubbed “the longest, most costly and destructive war in American history.” And oh, the things he discovers. Three minutes into the doc we are told the main source of funding for Partnership of a Drug Free America comes from the tobacco and alcohol industries. Booth captures the perspectives from a former LAPD narcotics officer, gang members, prisoners, cops, a sheriff, a former New Mexico governor, civil rights attorneys, Tommy Chong and Ricky Ross from jail and a host of others.
AMERICAN DRUG WAR along with the Bill Hicks karate comedy epic NINJA BACHELOR PARTY will be screening at the Druid Underground Film Festival at the Il Corral in Los Angeles this Sunday, March 11, at 7 pm.
Booth took some time to answer questions for AICN.
[Elston Gunn]: You were prompted by the alcohol, cigarette and prescription drug related deaths of family members and friends to personally find out exactly why these drugs are legal and others are not. At what point did you realize you should make a documentary about this? Where did you start?
[Kevin Booth]: When my mom was dying from liver failure, she was in an ICU unit with several others facing the same fate, all from a life of hard drinking. I was hit with this horrible smell that sickened me so deeply that I instantly lost my appetite for alcohol. After attending my third funeral in a row, I realized that the corporate culprits, Smirnoff, Dewar’s, RJ Reynolds, DuPont and others, would never be punished. Perhaps the last straw that angered me was the brilliant Nick & Norm ad campaign launched by the post-9/11 Bush administration in which the government was claiming that pot smokers support terrorism. So, in a way, this three and a half year journey has been fueled by hatred for a government that has long sold out to corporations.
[EG]: At any point did you think the topic was too broad? From prisons to medical marijuana,to gangs to the CIA and Afghan poppy farmers to Joe Rogan smoking weed on camera, you could’ve made a miniseries.
[KB]: It’s a good thing you didn’t see the first cut. I suppose my aim with this film was to show the many fronts that this war is being waged against the American people. I guess the trick is getting all these subjects together in one film and not having it feel like the ramblings of a schizophrenic. Hopefully, the final edit currently under way will achieve this, but perhaps someday it could be a miniseries.
[EG]: Why do you think the drug war seems to be such a huge failure? Is it simply money?
[KB]: For those waging the war it has been an incredible success, it’s a perfect business model, the government profits from distributing drugs into the ghettos of America and then profits from locking people up for using those drugs. The drug war is only a failure for the rest of us who must suffer from the greed of these corporate shills.
[EG]: The privatization of prisons and the part that plays in the drug war was particularly fascinating. When did you first learn about that?
[KB]: It’s the coincidences that kill me, such as during the Reagan administration, oddly enough, we had mandatory minimum sentencing for drug possession. Reagan’s Drug Act that made the penalties for crack a hundred times worse than powdered cocaine and, lo and behold, private corporations being allowed to build and run prisons. What’s the point of building all those new Wal-Mart’s if you can’t fill them with customers?
[EG]: The comparison of the Prohibition era to the drug war was interesting and you raised the question “Is meth a modern day moonshine?” Plus, you had people who were unfamiliar with meth in Amsterdam.
[KB]: The problem is that most young people today don’t know anything about Prohibition. It’s interesting to note that Prohibition didn’t end because they decided booze was good for glaucoma or even some moral issue. The number one killer drug, alcohol, was legalized because they realized it was so profitable. People should also note that when alcohol was made legal the moonshine business became non profitable. When the police ask users if they prefer crystal meth to cocaine they never add “what if cocaine was cheap?” Because when I ask meth head tweakers that question they always say they would rather have cocaine.
Why would people do crystal meth if they could have a real drug that comes from the Earth? I wish everyone who considers themselves to be a Christian would examine the organic basis of the drug laws in Amsterdam. Do you trust guys in white lab coats who only answer to a board of directors, or do you trust a plant that has been growing on this Earth long before mankind existed? Believing that both evolution and all of the religions that preach brotherhood are true, I’m am going to have to go with God and not the lab guys, even if he or she is only the lesser of two evils.
[EG]: In your own words what was it about Ricky Ross’ story that you felt was important to the film as opposed to other individuals you could have talked to?
[KB]: To me the story of Freeway Ricky Ross is as American as apple pie a la crack. Not only is it the “Scarface” rags-to-riches tale, it’s also the story of Oliver North and the Iran Contra scandal that most Americans seemed to have forgotten. It’s outrageous enough that Rick is the only one of those guys serving time, but the co-conspirators of North/Reagan are back to their old tricks working in the new Bush White House. For those of you rolling your eyes, Google “Crack & CIA.”
[EG]: Interesting that you have a former smuggler, a former DEA agent and a former Republican governor of New Mexico essentially saying the same similar things.
[KB]: I guess its nice to know that folks on both sides of the law are still willing to tell the truth even though it may not always be the most profitable choice. I believe that this tidal wave of indignation focused toward the Bush administration is long overdue. It’s like a domino effect; once people wake to the scam of Waco, Okalahoma City or 9/11 all these phony drug laws become more and more politically obvious. I thank God that the average American seems to have gotten over the “the government cares about me” hurdle that everyone seemed to be stuck on after 9/11.
[EG]: I’m sure investigative journalist Gary Webb was someone you would’ve really wanted to interview, whose story prompts me to ask… any concern for your safety? Mike Ruppert said some pretty ballsy things, too.
[KB]: I know it may sound trite, but Gary Webb was one of the next people I was going to interview when I got the news about his “death” – “suicide” – “assassination?” But for me I’m not really worried, because it’s not like I’m pointing fingers at individual people like Ruppert or Webb. I mean, nobody ever got harmed exposing an evil government or corporation, did they? I mean, the government and the large corporations care about me, why would they want to harm me?
If the DEA says smoking POT will kill you and Bush’s Texas body-double Rick Perry has mandated every young woman to take a cancer vaccination or they will face penalties, you got to believe it’s true! Of course, the fact that Merck Pharmaceutical gave Rick Perry a quarter million dollars is pure coincidence. The drug war is proof positive that they care about us like a rancher cares about his herd. It’s PROFIT & CONTROL.
[EG]: How important do you think it is to focus on the decriminalization of drugs versus legalization? Sometimes people use the terms synonymously, but there is a difference.
[KB]: I would be lying if I told you that we should legalize crystal meth, or many other strong drugs that will cause people to do crazy things. That said, does someone belong in prison for possessing these substances? And how do you draw a line between the type of person who would sell to a child or someone who is responsible and simply wishes to use behind closed doors, perhaps harming themselves, but not harming others. Seems like the basis of all laws in a free country should be based on Ye Old Ten Commandments deal.
Though shalt not Steal, Kill, Rape, you know all the real crimes. But as Republican Governor Gary Johnson says “we give people in some cases longer sentences for possession of marijuana than we do for murder or rape.” I would like to hear Mr. DEA or Mr. Undercover Narc explain that one when someday he or she must pass through the pearly gates. “You see, God, we decided this plant you left growing everywhere poses too much of a threat to our entire industrial, war, pharmaceutical, prison machine… AHHH OK, you caught me, I just wanted to keep my job and I didn’t care whose lives I destroyed.”
[EG]: What was the most surprising aspect of the drug war to you?
[KB]: That none of these gung ho drug warriors have the guts to be on camera. In a way I really respect Sheriff Joe because he has the balls to allow everyone to see who he is, which is more then I can say for the bulk of them. If you’re willing to ruin people’s lives because of your personal beliefs, then have the balls to stand up and say why. But they don’t because its all a bunch of gray-haired fearful little men who fight to protect Nixon’s fraudulent war that in turn protects their profit margins.
Most every black person living in the ghetto will tell you that they hate the police. I don’t hate the police; I hate the fact that these drug warriors are using my tax money to pay police for basically protecting the interests of the Alcohol, Tobacco and Pharmaceutical corporations. Don’t take my word for it, look up the yearly death stats of all illegal drugs vs. Alcohol, Tobacco and Pharmaceutical.
Then look up the yearly death stats of marijuana and ask yourself, “Why would they lock people up for this?” Superior Court judge Jim Gray puts it best, “Eighty five percent of all illegal drug users only use marijuana, so if you took marijuana out of the equation, the entire drug war machine would crumble.” It breaks my heart to think of all those prison guards losing their jobs, and they couldn’t start selling drugs because if you end the drug war, dealing would cease to be profitable. Maybe all these drug warriors would be forced to get educations and real jobs. I’m a dreamer!
[EG]: What have been some of the biggest challenges in making the film and getting it seen?
[KB]: Prisons are as hard to get in as they are to get out, especially these private prisons. I think I could have had an easier time finding Bin Laden than what I went through trying to interview Tommy Chong while in federal prison. I also wanted to portray gangs in a different light, because I’m so sick of the same tired headline about the murderous gangs of Los Angeles, I always knew that these are people who are just playing the cards they have been dealt.
I highly recommend BASTARDS OF THE PARTY out on HBO to learn the true history of gangs in Los Angeles. I’m no journalist, who am I kidding, I’m so involved in everyone’s lives now its ridiculous. I helped Bloods co-founder get a Paypal account and web site, trodgers.com, and I plan on starting a business with Ricky Ross when he gets released, not because he is some famous kingpin with his own BET special, AMERICAN GANGSTER, but because he is one smart motherfucker who I happen to like and respect as a person. (I could start the Adopt-a-Crack-Kingpin Foundation for guilty white people.)
[EG]: Any advice for aspiring documentarians?
[KB]: God, you better LOOOOVE your subject, and make sure the people your surrounded with are prepared to watch you transform into an obsessed single minded broken record. My poor wife, Trae, has been listening to me ramble every single day for the last 1350 days about the drug war, but I could have never done it without her. I’m coming on four years now, and even though I have won best documentary at the Evil City fest in NYC and the DIY fest in Hollywood, I am still working on the gersh-dang thing. Four years ago, I thought I would film for a few months and edit for a few months then watch the big bucks come rolling in. Classically, I chose a subject that is just so huge and complicated, but, truth-be-told, I love working on it and I will miss it when its all over.
[EG]: What projects are you working on next?
[KB]: After three years of doom and gloom I could use a change of pace. I’m currently in talks with director Curt Johnson about several different projects from a HALF BAKED pot comedy to another serious doc about the Patriot movement in Texas. The other night I actually attended a private Bloods rally to investigate the idea of setting a different type of story in a certain South Central neighborhood. At the rally I was exposed to this brown cylindrical shaped object with smoke trickling out of one end that caused me to become disoriented, the gang members call them “Blunt” or “da-Blunt?” I’ll be able to tell you more about this curious artifact when the test results come back from the lab.
[EG]: I know you were close friends with Bill Hicks, any upcoming Hicks-related plans?
[KB]: Many American Hicks fans don’t know that I have a book out on Harper Collins U.K,. BILL HICKS: AGENT OF EVOLUTION, available at sacredcow.com. Yes, there is a new Hicks doc in the works and it looks like it will be the best one yet, but my pale-skinned pals across the pond want to keep a lid on it for now.
For more info and updates on AMERICAN DRUG WAR, Hicks, Alex Jones, and other works of Kevin Booth check out SacredCow.com
Elston Gunn, elstongunn@hotmail.com, http://www.myspace.com/elstongunnaicn
High Times Magazine
Magazine Article by Mary Ought Six
Inspired by the tragic loss of his best friend, savvy and lovably raunchy comedian Bill Hicks, plus three members of his immediate family to “legal drugs”–inlcuding alcohol, tobacco and prescribed pharmeceuticals–director Kevin booth set out to make sure that he was “not the next victim of the Drug War.” His documentary, The Last White Hope: America’s War on Drugs, takes and ambitious and comprehensive look at the history of America’s longest losing battle.
Starting off with Bush Sr. and the media’s “encouragement” of crack cocaine use by their wide-spread plugs of “America’s most profitable and addictive substance,” the movie befriends infamous kingpin dealer Freeway Ricky Ross, the man some say is solely responsible for the rise of crack out of LA’s South Central, and other say was led with a golden carrot by the CIA and Oliver North. It is Ricky who labels the Drug War “the last white hope,” noting that the judge, jury, police officers, attorneys and DEA agents who convicted him were all white.
Racism is a running theme as a tool to keep government profits rolling in, and in some cases points to ethnic cleansing, as in the 1999 Tulia, TX, drug sting that put 10 percent of that city’s black population behind bars in one fell swoop.
Then there’s Sheriff Joe Arpaio with his painted tanks proudly advertising Maricopa County’s personal War on Drugs. The sheriff is shown inflicting his own brand of psychological torture throughout “Tent City,” requiring prisoners to take–with a smile–signed postcards of himself and the rescue dogs enjoying indoor air-conditioning while inmates bake in the Phoenix heat.
If you hate the Drug War–and I know you do–you’re going to love this documentary from Booth and production company Sacred Cow. Brace yourself for Afghani opium, interviews with a former drug czar and Amsterdam’s lone crack connoisseur, and the basic bad-guy bedlam in this informative documentary.
– Mary Ought Six
(source: americandrugwar.com)
