STONED: Hemp Nation on Trial

STONED: Hemp Nation on Trial is a 48-minute documentary that follows the story, trial and constitutional challenge of Christopher Clay, who faced four life sentences for selling cannabis seeds and plant cuttings from his store Hemp Nation in London, Ontario.

STONED: Hemp Nation on Trial premiered in February 1998 on CBC Newsworld, and is now available on youtube.

STONED: Hemp Nation on Trial was the most popular documentary on CBC's Rough Cuts in 1998-99 and was nominated for Best Political Documentary at HotDocs! in 1999. It premiered nationally in Canada on CBC Newsworld in 1998 and aired on CHUM TV in Ontario, Canada.

STONED: Hemp Nation on Trial is directed and produced by Russell Bennett, co-directed by Sarah Jane Flynn. The cinematography is by Jeremy Benning. The poster artwork is by Paolo Santos.

NSI Drama Prize Boot Camp Begins

Screenwriter of HENRY, and Vancouverite Gillian Bennett, starts the 2011 NSI Drama Prize Boot Camp along with three other winners from Ontario and Nova Scotia.

Meathead

 MEATHEAD (3 min.) was screened at Vancouver's Celluloid Social Club this past Wednesday, February 9, 2011.

It was one of two films screened from Steve Rosenberg's film school, Pull Focus.

Co-Directed by Ali Rashti and Russell Bennett.

MEATHEAD is set in the future when one man's quest for meat gives him more trouble than he expected.

Crazy8s 2011 Finalist

Based on Andrew Templeton's short script FUNNY BUSINESS, director Russell Bennett, actress/producer Gillian Bennett and Templeton pitched in front of the live Crazy8s jury on Saturday, January 29, 2011.

Based on a five-minute pitch, Vancouver's Crazy8s Film Festival selected the FUNNY BUSINESS team as one of 13 finalists. The team is now working on the script to submit to the jury on February 21. If chosen as one of the six winners, FUNNY BUSINESS will go to camera on March 28, with $800 and the support from Crazy8s, and be screened on April 9, 2011 at the Vogue Theatre.

To get to the live pitch stage, the Bennett's and Templeton had to apply with a five-minute video pitch. Their video pitch was chosen as the #1 pitch from a field of over 100 video pitches.

Big Smoke's NEW LOGO

Adrian Cunningham created Big Smoke Productions' new logo.
http://ca.linkedin.com/pub/adrian-cunningham/21/593/b58

Adrian's fabulous design incorporates the elements of a volcano's threatening wrath and the aftermath, to conjure the image of stories erupting and disrupting.

Check it out on our new website, www.bigsmokeproductions.com

NSI Drama Prize - WINNER 2011

While the official press release has yet to be released, the National Screen Institute called me last week with the fantastic news that our newest film, "HENRY" has won the 2011 Drama Prize.

This means that we will receive $10,000 in cash, $30,000 in in-kind services, and Boot Camp training in Winnipeg to make "HENRY." This is a miracle. This is an open door, after so many doors have closed on us. It is stupendous.

"HENRY" is a short film written by Gillian Bennett, based on her short story of the same name, about a woman who thinks she's given birth to a cockroach. Inspired by her best friend's fears of motherhood and by Kafka's "Metamorphosis", Gillian wrote a short psychological thriller about the isolation and alienation of being a new mother.

We are proud of the NSI for having the courage and creative foresight to green-light such a complex, mature and dark story.

First Time

This is the first video I made with/from my new laptop.

More to come.

RB

New Year, New Life

Russell here: I'm on my way to a Bikram Yoga class in 30 minutes and I have to walk Midge, whom Gill and I are dog-sitting for Em until February, so I've got to keep this short and to the point. And I wanted to make a public proclamation. 2010 is my year. It's my year of bringing all the elements I've been working on (acting, writing, directing and producing) together to make films. Lots and lots of films. I have my 2010 schedule - quite ambitious, but you have to start somewhere, right? No more excuses. I don't have a job to blame. I just have myself to answer to. And all the stories I'm turning into movies, just waiting to be told. As I write, Haiti has been decimated - the government is saying that over 200,000 people have died. I can't believe it. It's such an enormous tragedy that happened so fast. So because you never know when death will take you, that makes life so precious - every moment - to savour and enjoy. So I am savouring this moment and am striving for this year to be productive and filled with health and joy. Because the alternative doesn't look good. My wishes go out to Haitians for aid, water, food, shelter and healing to come swiftly.

What? Over a year ago?

I can barely believe it.

This blog was supposed to be our haven, our confessional, our tell-it-all to the world of our complete travels across the vast country of Canada in our pursuit to play our play, Crude Love: Love in the Time of the Oil Sands to anyone who would come. But we got tired.

So we simply performed the play and focused on that, and we spread the word by the old traditional way of word-of-mouth. And somehow that worked.

To recap:
In Winnipeg, we got slammed. Not only did we have to rent our own venue, but we had to rent a venue that was too far away for people to come to, unless they really wanted to see your play. But somehow, even after performing in Winnipeg for three years prior, we still hadn't developed a following. Or even a loathing. So we lost our shirts, and our morale, and Gill even lost her identity - some thieving retailer double-swiped her bank card and stole her pin. They put a phony cheque of $800 into her account, and then tried to take it out. But little did they know that she only had $5 in her account, so they got nothing, and she got notified, and then we got depressed. Because we only had $5 in her account. Ah, the glamourous life of a fringe tour performer!

But in Saskatoon, things started to turn around. We stayed with the inimitable Peter Kooey, and his lovely girlfriend, who treated us like family. They were so hospitable, and supportive of our play. We got a decent review in the paper, and started selling tickets again. And then a reviewer from Edmonton came to preview the play for the largest festival on the circuit, and loved it.

Because Edmontonians could buy tickets online, we started selling out in Edmonton even before we arrived. Unbelievable! It was helpful that our venue only held 100 people, but the word got out fast, and we were the only show in the whole fringe that sold out every single show. We were overjoyed. The Greenpeace Stop-the-Tar-Sands folks came and loved the show. We received incredible donations for Greenpeace in Edmonton, and the quality of the play rose as well. We were offered Pick of the Fringe, but turned it down, in favour of traveling to Victoria - too bad they overlapped.

Victoria was a great short stop along the way, bringing in fast cash for Greenpeace, and a favourable last-minute review from Monday Magazine. And what a joy to breathe in that coastal air again.

But the climax of the tour was most certainly found in our home town Vancouver, where again we sold out every single show - it helped that we could only squeeze 60 people in the venue. But reviewers and audiences alike loved the play. We managed to pull off a play that we had been dreaming of - a love story set in the near future with a political bent, not beating people over the head with it, but caressing them with it. We had many wet eyes at the end of shows, and our performances were never stronger.

We were voted Pick of the Fringe, and sold out the Waterfront Theatre (a dream of mine since The Reefer Man tour) two out of our three extra shows. It was a monumental event for us. We received standing ovations and the most money collected for Greenpeace in any city on the tour. Vancouverites rock! We were featured on the cover of the Georgia Straight weekly magazine, with an excellent article by Colin Thomas. We were given more than we had asked for.

But, on the night of our first sell-out at the Waterfront Theatre, I found out that my grandfather Sidney Goodman had died. Right after our last performance, we flew back to Toronto for his funeral, and I quickly realized again how fragile life is, and how short. We went from Sidney's graveside service to our friend Sarah Jane's beautiful fall wedding. And then back to Vancouver.

And in a quiet, two post-fringe performances, we closed the Crude Love tour at the Jericho Arts Centre, playing to small houses, coming back full circle to where we had begun in Montreal.

We collected an incredible $4,370.10 for Greenpeace's End-the-Tar-Sands campaign. We collected an armful of 4 and 5-star reviews, and we got to perform 62 times in the span of five months over eight Canadian cities. It was an incredible way to realize the fruits of our honeymoon writing retreat in Nicaragua. And I personally feel like the luckiest man on the planet, to be married to such an incredible woman - a talent like Gillian is rare - she is a brilliant actress, a soulful writer, and the most amazing wife and lover I could have ever imagined. Our love is anything but crude.

Great faith

It's been more than a month since our last entry. Could be that Winnipeg knocked the stuffing out of us. Could be that we are run ragged. Could be that we are damn lazy bloggers. So here is the summary. We had a hard time getting people to our show in Winnipeg BYOV and lukewarm reviews. We were disheartened. We thought about pulling out of the tour. It felt like it just wasn't working. We wondered: Is it worth it? Does the show stink? Are we happy? Should we persevere? And we did.

We had a successful and fun stop over in beautiful Saskatoon. Not a lot of theatre goers in that town, but the few are mighty. And people truly enjoyed the show. We enjoyed doing it. Especially enjoyed the incredible generosity of Peter and Carol, our hosts in that town. Intelligent and lovely people. Peter also runs the Off Broadway Arts Centre, our venue, and the green room which was a raucous sanctuary for all the performers. This is the stop where we all get to know each other, relax, play fussball and darts and drink. Spoof night was a big hit. We loved spoofing the fabulous "Die Roten Punkte". Now, we are in Edmonton. My family is amazing. Everyone is so supportive and nurturing and kind. It's good to be home. Especially since we are 4 tickets away from having sold out our entire run. We may be one of the only shows, of 135 here in Edmonton, to have done that. I credit my family, my Mom, Dad, Gayle, Iain and Karen and Ian(from Ottawa) spreading the word. But we are totally shocked at all the sell outs and buzz around the show. We've had amazing reviews, intelligent reviews, full houses and people who get the show. It is set in Edmonton's back yard, after all. Of course the people in this province would be interested and would show up to support us. We'd love to do a province wide tour, including Fort McMurray, if only a producer would set it up. So we are half way through the Edmonton Festival and almost entirely sold out. We've been asked to stay and do a hold over. Which is a lovely honour, though we may have to pass because of our commitment to the Victoria Fringe which Edmonton overlaps with. So what a difference a city makes. I can't believe that with the same show, we tanked in one city and are flourishing in another. Perhaps this is evidence that if you persevere, things might, just might get better and those things you hope will come true actually can. When we were writing the play, I read a Buddhist saying which was, I think "Great Question, Great Courage, Great Faith". We wrote this quote on a piece of paper and hung it on the wall above our desk. I looked at it daily and wondered if keeping focussed on these great things leads you to where you need to go. If faith is enough. Wondered if courage could be confused with crazy. If faith could be confused with obstinance. And now, we are enjoying such success. People are getting the show. The message is getting out. And we seem to be taking people on a journey in our little hour onstage. So maybe those Buddhists have it right. And it is great persistence that is required when what you have is a loving husband, a cat named Whiskers, and the hope that all you labored for maybe, just maybe, can come to something more. And sometimes it does. You just have to dig deep. And keep going. And hold on.