Con’s Score:3 spliffs
The story of how a corporate woman ended up on the streets and became a ‘dope dealing nun’ is the sort of quirky tale that indie movies are made of. As a documentary, it’s a strange little tale.
Catherine was a consultant, who’s business interests took her overseas, with her stay-at-home husband and three kids in tow. Once they banked their first million dollars in profit, the husband decided it was time to head to Switzerland and enjoy the money he had been swindling into private accounts. Catherine returned to America with no home and no money.
She moved in with her brother and his two children, and decided medicinal marijuana was a growth industry she could join very easily. Californian law allows six plants per plot. Catherine wanted to do everything above board and measured, bagged and documented everything. When she caught her brother doing a cash deal, they argued and he physically threw her out. She literally ended up as a homeless person.
Once again, she used medicinal marijuana as her way out of poverty. She worked, bought a run down property and started farming again. It’s a dodgy business. Harvesting time attracts crims who want to come and pull up plants even with bullets flying around them.
The habit and sisterhood came from a dare from one of her children, which stuck. She changed her name to Sister Kate and her efforts soon attracted other sisters who help to cultivate her crops, which she needs a license for. The local police have no sympathies (and no necks. Their chins seem to blend into their bellies.)
There are some funny lines from the local sheriffs “All those cancer patients who smoke it, still die” and another asks, if medicinal marijuana was so effective, why isn’t everyone producing it? It seems the fat has risen into their skulls, and this is a question that is well worth pursuing an answer to.
(As an aside, the medicinal benefits of the CBD strands marijuana have been well documented now. The dramatic improvement in epileptics, cancer sufferers and so many others is dramatic. It’s those high in THC that produced the blissful effects, but it is still an important ingredient.)
But I still don’t understand what the concern is. As a meme I saw recently stated, five drunk men will start a fight; five stoned guys will start a band.
Director Rob Ryan has produced a charming little documentary that will fill festival slots nicely. It could have been a lot quirkier and funnier, and is informative. Unfortunately, the loose structure and undeveloped sub plots makes it feel a like a wasted opportunity.
I still felt that if there is a God, she is looking down on us wondering why we’ve squandered such a valuable plant, when it has so many amazing medicinal qualities, and hemp is such a great alternative to nylon and plastics.
Just like medicinal marijuana, this is well intentioned, under developed, but has a pleasant little hit. It’s a pity it could have been so much more.
Con Nats, On The Screen
