420 Feature: Reefer Madness (1936) & stoned shorts on 16mm

Showings

Grand Illusion Cinema Sat, Apr 20 7:00 PM
Film Info
Release Year:1936
Format:16mm
Cast/Crew Info
Director:Louis J. Gasnier

Description

Presented by The Sprocket Society.

 

Women cry for it! Men die for it! SEE! Youthful marijuana victims! WITNESS! Unspeakable depravities of drug-crazed abandon! DIG! That crazy piano playing! YES! The most infamous anti-weed scare movie in history will boggle your bong-fried brain! NO! None of its crap is true! WOW! It is hilariously terrible! A stoner must-see! ONE PUFF AND YOU’LL BE HOOKED!

 

Shown from a rare 16mm print, along with stoned cartoons and shorts.

 

Originally produced by a church group as a “cautionary tale,” REEFER MADNESS backfired spectacularly. First it was recut for the sleazy exploitation circuit, then in the 1970s pro-legalization groups started showing it as a fundraiser. Spreading like a contact high, it became a cult hit for generations of pot heads, and the very namesake of fact-free, impotent prohibitionist hysteria.

 

Come celebrate 420 and legal weed in Washington with a taste of this mad chronic nug. (Please always enjoy cannabis responsibly.)

 

“Its reputation is well earned. …You’ll look long and hard before you find a dope movie more hysterically alarmist, more flagrantly deceitful than Reefer Madness.” — 1,000 Misspent Hours

 

“The granddaddy of all 'Worst' movies.” — Leonard Maltin