Press

(Note: more to come soon! Contact me with questions in the meantime.)

Reviews

After One Good Year‘s world premier at Capital City Film Fest, The Lansing City Pulse had this to say about One Good Year:

A glimpse into the rather workmanlike world of Humboldt County marijuana growers, “One Good Year” humanizes one of the most famous cannabis-producing areas in the world. The growers portrayed are honest, hardworking people with zeal and heartfelt appreciation for what comes from the soil. There are no shocking revelations, but it makes those who paint these workers as criminals look foolish.

Like any other agricultural industry, marijuana cultivation requires specialized knowledge and a deep understanding of the earth. “One Good Year” is another valuable step in putting a human face to the still-stigmatized cannabis culture. While the film is a no-frills documentary, it effectively illuminates the know-how and passion of its featured, dedicated growers. -SP

Orange County Weekly had this to say after One Good Year screened twice at Newport Beach Film Festival 2014

One Good Year follows one fair-to-middling year for four Humboldt County pot growers. These are not the growers of recent years who have moved in with large-scale operations that have left environmental degradation in their wake. These are homesteaders–and in one case a third generation Humboldt pot grower–who are so barely getting by, they cannot afford to buy much of anything in town (Garberville), where prices have been driven up by you know who moving in.

But the characters–and I mean characters–director Mikal Jakubal shadows in his fascinating documentary seem happy despite the poverty, back-breaking work and multiple threats to their cash crops that are, after all, illegal, even in Humboldt County.

Jakubal includes a priceless scene with a sheriff’s sergeant there declaring the drug war over, lost and should of having resulted in legalization. That issue has actually divided the pot growers the filmmaker came to know, as he explained after Monday afternoon’s West Coast premiere screening at The Triangle in Costa Mesa.

Some fear legalization will change their businesses but most relish the chance to finally come out in the open and identify themselves to the world as legal pot growers. To that end, at least a couple featured in One Good Year see 2016 as the good year they are targeting (and campaigning) for legalization in California, Jakubal noted.

The director is now planting the seed for a sequel that will look more closely at the legalization struggle and how it’s playing out in Humboldt County. Meanwhile, you can still catch the compelling One Good Year at its repeat screening at 3:15 p.m. today at Fashion Island Cinemas.