Exclusive: Cannabis feature documentary Lady Buds, which tells the story of a group of multigenerational women as they navigate the new world of cannabis farming and distribution in Northern California, is getting a pair of spinoffs.
The doc, which comes from director and producer Cj Russo, is being developed as a scripted comedy feature as well as a non-scripted series.
Lady Buds, which is set to have its broadcast premiere on March 1 on Starz, tells the story of a group of women including LatinX, African American, LGBTQ and seniors that navigate the world of cannabis the year before and after legalization. It follows the likes of Chiah Rodriques, a second generation cannabis farmer who co-founded a Mendocino County farm alliance, Sue Taylor, a 71-year-old retired Catholic school principal whose mission is to open the first cannabis dispensary for seniors that would offer alternatives to pharmaceuticals, Felicia Carbajal, who provided cannabis...
The doc, which comes from director and producer Cj Russo, is being developed as a scripted comedy feature as well as a non-scripted series.
Lady Buds, which is set to have its broadcast premiere on March 1 on Starz, tells the story of a group of women including LatinX, African American, LGBTQ and seniors that navigate the world of cannabis the year before and after legalization. It follows the likes of Chiah Rodriques, a second generation cannabis farmer who co-founded a Mendocino County farm alliance, Sue Taylor, a 71-year-old retired Catholic school principal whose mission is to open the first cannabis dispensary for seniors that would offer alternatives to pharmaceuticals, Felicia Carbajal, who provided cannabis...
- 2/23/2022
- by Peter White
- Deadline Film + TV
As talk of legalization swept through California’s Humboldt and Mendocino counties in 2016, local marijuana growers remained cautiously optimistic. After decades of helicopter flyovers, DEA raids, and living life in the shadows, growers traded fears of prosecution for anxiety over what an influx of big money could do to their hard-won industry. Filmed over four years, “Lady Buds” While a few characters are as colorful as one would imagine, most are simply hard-working entrepreneurs trying to stay afloat. The feminist film does their stories justice through an empathetic if disappointingly dry lens.
Filmmaker Chris J. Russo became interested in the subject matter after reading a statistic that women held 36 percent of leadership positions in the cannabis industry, the highest percentage of any other emerging market in the U.S. Focusing on six main subjects, plus a few supporting characters, “Lady Buds” struggles to find a human narrative, even among a plethora of eccentrics.
Filmmaker Chris J. Russo became interested in the subject matter after reading a statistic that women held 36 percent of leadership positions in the cannabis industry, the highest percentage of any other emerging market in the U.S. Focusing on six main subjects, plus a few supporting characters, “Lady Buds” struggles to find a human narrative, even among a plethora of eccentrics.
- 11/27/2021
- by Jude Dry
- Indiewire
The recent indie drama “Freeland” is about a fictive longtime Northern California pot grower whose life only becomes more complicated — and her business less viable — when the state legalizes the hitherto-criminalized industry. New documentary “Lady Buds” features several of that character’s real-world equivalents, women whose entrepreneurial (as well as agricultural) skills are transitioning to a very different era for the marijuana marketplace.
. But while the personalities spotlit here are easy to root for, what emerges is less an upbeat look at female enterprise than yet another case of corporate money and political mechanizations killing off community-based small businesses to further enrich their deep-pocketed, invasive new rivals. It’s an ultimately depressing trajectory, though the film itself remains engaging and well crafted. Gravitas Ventures is releasing to limited theaters and VOD on Nov. 26.
After a short dramatization of how things used to be (a surreptitious exchange of garbage bags o...
. But while the personalities spotlit here are easy to root for, what emerges is less an upbeat look at female enterprise than yet another case of corporate money and political mechanizations killing off community-based small businesses to further enrich their deep-pocketed, invasive new rivals. It’s an ultimately depressing trajectory, though the film itself remains engaging and well crafted. Gravitas Ventures is releasing to limited theaters and VOD on Nov. 26.
After a short dramatization of how things used to be (a surreptitious exchange of garbage bags o...
- 11/23/2021
- by Dennis Harvey
- Variety Film + TV
In what could be a companion piece to Mario Furloni and Kate McLean’s cannibusiness drama Freeland, Chris J. Russo’s Lady Buds is an exploration of newcomers and legends blazing a path for themselves in California’s legal recreational cannabis market. Legalized by the flawed Prop 64 in 2016––a messy bill that intended to provide both relief for those with a criminal record while also building a market place that gave small farmers time to develop a “farm to stoner” industry before big capital came in––the subjects of Russo’s documentary spend time navigating the legal framework, fighting against Nimby-ism, old thinking (both within the industry and in municipalities) and the well-capitalized players looking to cash in. The old farmers of Humboldt County balance the hurdles of legalization along with practical business decisions: will publicly-traded companies and big money make it impossible to complete, driving the price of the...
- 5/10/2021
- by John Fink
- The Film Stage
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