Rosario Dawson Boarded ‘Kiss My Grass' Doc To Spotlight Black Women 'Risking All' In Cannabis — Tribeca
Growing up in a multiracial family in New York City, Rosario Dawson had a unique first-hand perspective on how cannabis is used as a tool for racism.
As an executive producer and the narrator of Kiss My Grass, a documentary short that premiered last week at Tribeca Film Festival, exploring the underlying roots of racial injustice and inequity in the cannabis space, the actress opened up to Deadline about how seeing the war on drugs 'devastate entire communities' made her want to participate in the project.
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'I grew up around a lot of potheads, including my parents. It was always a thing,' she explained. 'My dad's a white guy and he could grow his weed out on the fire escape. My mom was like, 'OK, that's crazy, you can't do that with the kids.''
Dawson continued, 'But he just grew up in Texas, and kind of just did whatever he wanted, and he always behaved that way. And I understood, and so did my mom, and so did the rest of us in the community, that that was a luxury and a privilege that he had, and that he didn't have any other personal experiences, except for through his friends and his family and people, that this war on drugs had done to devastate entire communities.'
Noting that her father was part Indigenous, Dawson explained 'he felt like it was his right, it was something natural.'
'It was incredible being on that journey with him, from watching him when I was a kid,' she added. 'And just feeling like he was privileged to be in California when he got cancer, being able to talk to his doctor and get off of six different medications they wanted to put him on, that he could just use weed for his nausea, for his pain, for his sleeping, and have that conversation directly with his doctor and to see that transformation.'
It was an equally personal experience for Mary Pryor, who co-directed the doc alongside Mara Whitehead, in addition to serving as a subject as the co-founder of Cannaclusive, founder of Sheba, Baby! and CMO of Tricolla Farms.
'We're just getting into the weeds of what it is to be marginalized triple time in this space, with chronic health items, and with being Black, and being a woman, and coming from the descendants of the drug war,' explained Pryor. 'Because my dad happened to be affected by the war on drugs, I just felt and saw inequity in a lot of different ways.'
Pryor wanted to uncover a 'deeper uncomfortable truth' about the government's mentality around cannabis and the struggles of those who are trying to 'righting the wrongs of the war on drugs.'
'This issue is affecting everyone, and so the decision collectively as directors on this, with Mara, to have not just Black women say what's going on, but have white people and Latina folks and different walks of life confirm that this is not just an isolated incident, is real,' added Pryor.
Whitehead, who has a background in impact-driven storytelling, admitted she 'didn't understand the nuances' of racial inequity in cannabis as a white woman who grew up in Colorado, but she 'was shook to my core' after meeting the women involved.
'Because I think so much of this is happening in the dark,' explained Whitehead. 'And when Mary invited me into this space, I think the filmmaking process really was an act of uncovering and unfurling for me in terms of what this story actually entails.'
Meeting with other Black women in cannabis, Pryor felt a sense of 'trauma bonding' in hearing their stories. 'Everyone is already dealing with the inequities of existence. And we have to grow together in order to push and lean in on the truth for the sake of getting to the other side, which is all about doing better and treating people with humanity,' she said.
Dawson praised 'the bravery and the courage' of the women who shared their experiences in the documentary as well as Pryor for continuing to educate people and 'directing this project long since before the project was fully formed or ideated.'
'It was risky, and the fact that these women were putting everything on the line and risking all of that was just so powerful to me, because ultimately, it isn't just about their individual stories,' added Dawson. 'So many of them, it's about like what Mary's been doing, lifting all those boats with that tide, and I just really, really appreciated that.'
Kiss My Grass producers include Ashaki 'Saki' Fenderson, Luke Anderson and Justin Benoliel, with executive producers Dawson, Colin Kaepernick, Nancy Whiteman and Hilary Yu.
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