American Drug War: The Last White Hope
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American Drug War: The Last White Hope is a 2007 documentary by writer/director Kevin Booth about the War on Drugs in the United States.
The film has won three minor awards for “Best Feature Length Documentary." In late spring of 2007, Kevin signed with Page Ostrow of Ostrow & Company who secured “American Drug War” a deal with the Showtime cable network (CBS). In November of 2007, "American Drug War" was honored at the 2007 [Artivist] Awards Ceremony as the Best Feature Film in the International Human Rights category.
Synopsis
35 years after Nixon started the war on drugs, we have over one million non-violent drug offenders living behind bars. [1]
The War on Drugs has become the longest [2] and most costly [3] war in American history, the question has become, how much more can the country endure? Inspired by the death of four family members from "legal drugs," Texas filmmaker Kevin Booth sets out to discover why the Drug War has become such a big failure. [4] Three and a half years in the making, the film follows gang members, former DEA agents, CIA officers, narcotics officers, judges, politicians, prisoners and celebrities. Most notably the film befriends Freeway Ricky Ross; the man many accuse for starting the Crack epidemic, who after being arrested discovered that his cocaine source had been working for the CIA. [5]
American Drug War shows how money, power and greed have corrupted not just drug pushers and dope fiends, but an entire government. More importantly, it shows what can be done about it. This is not some 'pro-drug' stoner film, but a collection of expert testimonials from the ground troops on the front lines of the drug war, the ones who are fighting it and the ones who are living it.
Cast (alphabetically by last name)
Sheriff Joe Arpaio, Jello Biafra, Chico Brown, Celerino Castillo III, Tommy Chong, Sergeant Lou Daigle, Dr. Gary Fisher, Judge James P. Gray, Dr. Charles Grob, Dr. Claudia Jensen, Gary E. Johnson, Dennis Kucinich, General Barry McCaffrey, Todd McCormick, Cynthia McKinney, Ron Paul, Tom Rhodes, Joe Rogan, Freeway Ricky Ross, Michael Ruppert, Joe Pietri, Robert David Steele, and others.
Awards
- 2007 Artivist Film Festival, Best Feature, Intl. Human Rights [6]
- 2007 Silver Lake Film Festival, Best Documentary [7]
- 2007 DIY Film Fest, Best Documentary
- 2006 Evil City, Best Documentary [8]
Television
- Picked up by Showtime in March of 2008 to be aired for the next two years. [9]
- Currently airing on Australia's Foxtel Television [10]
Hollywood attention
- On an April 2008 episode of HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher, actor Esai Morales brought up the documentary and told everyone at home to see it for themselves. Morales' comments became the focus of a "Pinheads and Patriots" segment on Bill O'Reilly's Fox News Channel television program.
References
- ^ http://www.cjcj.org/pubs/one_million/onemillionexec.html
- ^ http://www.fff.org/comment/com0412f.asp
- ^ http://www.independent.org/publications/article.asp?id=323
- ^ http://www.drugpolicy.org/drugwar/
- ^ http://www.amazon.com/Dark-Alliance-Contras-Cocaine-Explosion/dp/1888363932
- ^ http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_pwwi/is_200711/ai_n21098812
- ^ http://www.silverlakefilmfestival.org/slff2007/pressreleases.html
- ^ http://www.evilcityfilmfest.com/
- ^ http://www.sho.com/site/schedules/product_page.do?seriesid=0&episodeid=131464
- ^ http://forums.sacredcowproductions.com/uploads/post-2-1208967245.jpg
