Fri. Apr. 27, 7:00pm
AHEAD FOR BUSINESS, I
MARY JANES: THE WOMEN OF WEED – FEATURE DOC
Synopsis: Women are changing the face of today’s fastest growing industry – cannabis. Join filmmaker Windy Borman as she discovers how they’re also changing the world. Windy Borman; Melissa Etheridge; Betty Aldworth; Kaylene Alvarez; Sara Batterby; Windy Borman, director. Drug themes. USA
Questions by Kaylene Peoples | Responses by Windy Borman, multi-award winning Producer, Writer and Director
- Directing is hard enough, but add writer, producer . . . and you’re successfully doing it all. How do you manage to do it all, and so successfully at that?
I wear all the hats out of necessity. With my first documentary, The Eyes of Thailand, I couldn’t afford to bring a crew with me to Thailand multiple times, so I produced, directed and operated a camera. I hired a Writer to help me sort through the hundreds of hours of log notes and shape the story, but the voice wasn’t quite right, so I ended up writing the Voiceover transitions for Ashley Judd to narrate.
With Mary Janes: The Women of Weed, the cannabis industry evolves so quickly that our story had to keep pace. Having a lean crew kept us nimble and provided greater access to characters and events because we had a small footprint. When it came time for Post-Production, I knew the story and the characters. It was easiest for me to write the script to stitch all the sound bytes together, and then write my Voice Over for on-camera and off-camera narrations.
- What was the impetus for you becoming a filmmaker?
Originally I wanted to be an actor, but I added a second major in journalism to have a backup plan. I took the opportunity to study abroad in Ghana one summer to satisfy some of my journalism credits. There I interned at a production company that was in the middle of shooting a TV show. One day the Director wasn’t feeling well, so he handed me the script and said, “You call it today”. So there I was, at age 22, directing a TV show in West Africa. After that I was hooked on directing film and media.
- You’ve won awards for your documentaries. Mary Janes: the Women of Weed is really on the pulse of what’s happening with the sale and production of cannabis. How do you feel about the “weed” growing and selling business, and how it impacts its steadily growing demographic . . . women?
The cannabis industry provides women and people of the color the opportunity to build the next billion-dollar industry and not follow the old male business paradigm. I’m excited how they are seizing this opportunity to create a socially responsible industry from the ground up, and tackling issues like the gender parity, sustainability, the prison-industrial complex, the racist War on Drugs, and the destructive domination of Big Pharma.
- Documentaries are daunting. There is usually endless footage, and a lot depends on how you tell that story in editing. Did you sit with the editor and sculpt the final documentary? If so, tell me some of the challenges you faced, cutting all the pieces together?
In narrative films, they say you write your film three times: you write the script; you re-write it on set; and you re-write it again in the editing room. With documentaries, you have an idea of where you think the story will go while you’re filming, but you have to stay open to surprises. In our case, we filmed from February through December 2016. Initially, we thought we had a simple story: we’ll have the first female President, women are building the next billion-dollar industry, Yay, Girl Power! When that didn’t happen on Election Night, we had to go back to the drawing board and decide what the film was about. We realized it came down to three core values: gender parity, social justice and environmental sustainability. Those provided a structure and a framework for how to tell our story, but that also meant I would need to become an on-camera narrator to take the audience on this journey with me.
My Editor, Gregg Stouffer, was with me during the juggling and revising as I rewrote the Paper Edit. He’s bald, but if he’d had any hair left he may have pulled it all out. However, in the end we both knew we had to tell the best story possible, so we listened to feedback on our Rough Cuts and refined and polished until it is what we have today.
- Does the budget of a film dictate its outcome? Please elaborate.
Always. There’s the budget you want, and the budget you have. You make the best damn film possible with the budget you have.
- What was the highest high during the filming of Mary Janes. Did you have any revelations of your own while completing this documentary?
My highest high was literally getting “high” on camera. I’d never consumed cannabis before I started Mary Janes: The Women of Weed, but after interviewing 40 female leaders in cannabis, I was finally curious to try it. At the end of the film, you see me legally purchase and consume cannabis for the first time ever. Spoiler Alert: It was not a gateway drug!
- Is the film business fair? Why or why not? How do you make the apparatus work for you?
No. It’s easy to look at the abyssal statistics about women in film, and the abuse and harassment in the industry, and think, why would I want to work in the film industry? But this is is why we need more women in film, not less. When we have parity, the status quo of mistreating women will not be tolerated, and we’ll have more varied storytelling, too.
- What challenges, if any, have you faced as a woman director/producer?
Being underestimated because I’m a woman is a challenge in every stage of filmmaking. Having people second-guess you because of your gender makes everything from pitching and fundraising, to producing, directing, and distributing the film more difficult.
Another challenge has been having men pose as film investors but really they just want to sleep you. Years ago that seemed to come with the territory, and I got used to rerouting the conversation when that came up. I hope the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements will help level the playing field so every woman is treated with dignity and respect at every level of production.
- Why Mary Janes? How does this movie reflect your own life? Is cannabis something you have experience?
In 2014, I moved to Colorado, right when the legal cannabis market began. I had never consumed cannabis, and my friends teased me that I would see a pot dispensary on every corner. While that wasn’t entirely true, I couldn’t ignore all the stories of women having success in the cannabis industry. Then I heard the statistic that 36% of cannabis leadership is women. The national average is 22%, so there is something about cannabis that was attracting more female leaders. That intrigued me enough that I started interviewing people.
- What are some of the highlights of your career?
Screening The Big Picture: Rethinking Dyslexia (a documentary I produced) at Sundance in 2012 was pretty cool, so was having The Eyes of Thailand recognized by the United Nations twice.
- Did you have a mentor?
No. There are two things that will really change the film industry. The first is access to funding. We need women—and men—investing in female helmed projects. We know that when women are the directors or producers, they hire more women and people of color because we intuitively know that having more diverse perspectives on the project will make it more successful. This is true for Fortune 500 companies to film crews.
The second is mentorship. In the past, we’d have one woman on the leadership team or board of directors and we’d stop there. We need more women in leadership positions to help mentor other women to claim their seats at the table.
- What inspires you?
Anyone who is overcoming obstacles and making the world a better place.
- What are some of your favorite movies and why?
There are too many to list.
Visit Artemis Women In Action Film Festival for Screening Information. The film festival runs through April 26-29, 2018! Get your tickets for Mary Janes: The Women of Weed
