Exclusive: Interview With The Union’s Adam Scorgie!
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So it has been a month or so in the making, but I’ve just heard back from Adam Scorgie, co-creator and executive producer of the much-hyped marijuana documentary, The Union: The Business Behind Getting High. I compiled a list of questions I wanted to know and several of you contributed your own.
Again, if you haven’t yet watched it… watch it. There are many great marijuana documentaries on the market, each bringing something unique to the table, but I truly believe The Union has gone above and beyond when it comes to cited research and copious amounts of professional logic. Don’t forget to pre-order your copy!
Some interesting highlights from the interview:
- The Union was not originally supposed to be a general “pro-marijuana” documentary. Rather, it was originally supposed to be a specific exposé piece on the B.C Bud industry.
- As Adam puts it, “I think because we didn’t have an agenda, or goal for the film going into it is why it turned out so well.”
- From start to finish, the film took four years to complete.
- According to Adam, growers are hoping against legalization for at least five years so they can build a nest-egg for retirement.
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This interview was conducted via e-mail between April 22nd, 2009 and April 26h, 2009. Only minor grammar/spelling checks have been made at the request of Adam Scorgie. Hyperlinks were added after by myself.
Q. ShowMetheFacts.org: What is your first memory of marijuana?
A. Adam Scorgie: HMMMM!!!!, I have to think way back, because growing up in B.C, we’re exposed to Marijuana at such an early age, but here’s goes: I remember the first week of high school, back when high schools went from grades 8-12, and hanging out by the smoke pit and all these older kinds were talking about smoking Bud, Reefer,Pot, Marijuana,Ganja, and I remember thinking to myself, “Wow, there sure are a lot of different drugs around school”, haha, it wasn’t until later that year I realized they were all the same thing.
Q. SMtF: Have you always been supportive of marijuana, or what caused you to change your views?
A. A.S.: No, actually, I was very against marijuana when I was younger, I was somewhat of a jock in high school and believed everything that I was told about Cannabis, that it would make you stupid, lazy, go onto harder drugs. It wasn’t until we started filming The Union that my mind was changed, because originally all we wanted to do with The Union, was just an exposé of the B.C Bud industry, we never knew it would evolve into the educational piece it has become. It was because of interviews with former Police officers like Norm Stamper and scientist and doctors like Lester Grinspoon that really turn my perception, of what “I thought I knew” around.
Q. SMtF: Are you vocal about marijuana in your personal life? If so, how do your family/friends respond to your perspective on marijuana? How do they feel about The Union?
A. A.S.: I am pretty vocal now, I don’t consider myself an activist, although being a producer of this film, seems to make us the unofficial spokesmen for Cannabis. I have always been a fighter, so I’m not afraid to argue about the facts, in fact, I would say I like informing people about the truth. I couldn’t ask for a better family or core group of friends and there all very supportive, especially my father; he’s the one that really made The Union become possible. He lent me just over 200,000 dollars to make the film, and I still have owe him 175,000. He never asks when he’ll get it back, all he tells me is how proud he is of me. So please buy a copy of the DVD so I can pay him back! haha
Q. SMtF: Did you learn anything new about marijuana while creating the documentary? If so, what?
A. A.S.: I think, “what didn’t I learn when making this documentary?” is a more appropriate question!!! I learned so much, I don’t even know where to start. Let’s just say that now, when I watch the news or read a newspaper, I read between the lines and try to get a sense of where the writer or reporters views stand before I believe everything I read or hear.
Q. SMtF: How did you guys handle your research? Was most of it already known prior to filming, or how long prior to filming did you prepare/research?
A. A.S.: The research just about KILLED us, well, especially the director Brett Harvey, he truly put is heart and soul into making the film a thought provoking and respected film. We did so much research and, no, we knew not even a tenth of it going into it. I myself knew a lot about The Union itself, but after every interview we learned so much more and had to more research and more reading. I think because we didn’t have an agenda, or goal for the film, going into it is why it turned out so well.
Q. SMtF: How long did it take to find so many supplemental clips that seamlessly work with your documentary?
A. A.S.: Haha, this would be a better question for my editing team Brett & Stephen, but I know it took forever; they went through over 100 hours of stock footage for the film. Just watching 100 hours of stock footage would take a week, let alone cutting clips together and making them fit with the music and voice-over and then to make the overall storyline make sense, I get tired just thinking about it.
Q. SMtF: What was the total production time? Post Production?
A. A.S.: Tricky question, I met with BKS-Crew in 2004 who I ended up hiring to direct & edit the film. We traveled and shot for about a year and a half, and then post/editing and further research took about another year. Post gets very difficult because your trying to create something entertaining as well as educational, but THEN you’re dealing with legalities, making sure you can get all the proper rights for video clips and music, release forms, errors & omissions insurance. The film changed SOOOO much from it’s original cut because we couldn’t afford certain video clips or music. So in the end, from concept to dvd it took about 4 years!!!
Q. SMtF: How did you manage to arrange the encounter with the grower? Were you scared or worried? Were you confident?
A. A.S.: Encountering growers where I grew up is a pretty common thing, so many friends and acquaintances of mine grow, or have grown, so it was a little easier for me to get in contact with a grower than most people… getting him to let me bring a film crew into his grow-op turn out to be the biggest challenge. And yes it was scary, hoping that the police wouldn’t raid the place while we were in there filming.
Q. SMtF: How did you find the location of the train-cart grow-op? Did you have permission to be in there, or is it open for anyone to visit?
A. A.S.: We were able to get into the underground train cart grow-op because I knew the people to were previously busted growing in there, actually one of the individuals involved was right next to us while we were shooting, always standing just outside the view of the camera. Otherwise we have NEVER found that place, it in the middle of nowhere.
Q. SMtF: At around 50 minutes, you talk about how much marijuana affects the economy. How much would you estimate is contributed to the economy via black market marijuana grow-ops?
A. A.S.: When you say contributed, do you mean via purchased goods and equipment like lights, fertilizer, building supplies? Or how much is spent by growers on vehicles, houses, jewellery, drinking & eating out ? either way I would say its in the 100’s of millions mark. I know of many growers who have million dollar homes, several hundred thousand dollar cars, and are making more money now, during the recession because B.C bud prices have risen from $2000 per pound to just over $3000 a pound, plus if you calculate is this cash and tax free they definitely put a ton of money back into the economy.
Q. SMtF: Be honest, did you do so many walking-scenes because it was visually appealing, or beacuse it was cheaper than a set?
A. A.S.: We did that because right when we were making our film festival submissions we had to change the film, we had to shorted in by 18 minutes, and we had to change the whole beginning and create a new way to tie all the segments together. So it was the most cost effective way we could get it done. We shot all of the walking scenes in one day, and went back to the editing room and re-edited the whole film, so the whole process took us about two weeks I think, and for how big of a change we made to the film in the little time and money we had, I think we did a pretty good job. It wasn’t our first choice, but we did what we had to do.
Q. SMtF: What do you feel is the biggest obstacle currently keeping marijuana from being legalized? Lobbyists/Corporations? Ignorance/Lack of education in society?
A. A.S.: It’s tough to pin point exactly what it is that’s keeping Cannabis from being regulated, but I would say it’s lack of education because even some very smart people in politics really have no understanding when it comes to Cannabis. They’re going by the same information we were misinformed with for years and until that changes, I don’t see anything changing.
Q. SMtF: Do you feel Canada will ever be able to legislate/regulate marijuana independently from the United States, or who do you think will have to make the “first move”?
A. A.S.: If you would have asked me this two years ago I would have said Canada for sure, but now for the first time the U.S has a more liberal government than Canada has, so I don’t know. I still think Canada will regulate Cannabis before the U.S, but I think something is going change in the next 10 years, because even some of the growers I know are starting to sweat. Growers say they really hope they can get another 5 years of the laws staying the same, so they can make enough to retire. And for the growers to start thinking their time is running out, I find that very interesting.
Q. SMtF: The Marijuana Observer, in their review of your documentary, felt that your “kitchen-sink approach to marijuana issues” was a bit “overwhelming”. How do you respond to this? Do you feel that the broadness of topics touched upon diluted your overall message? And, most importantly, what was the message you hoped to educate to your viewers?
A. A.S.: With regards to the Marijuana Observer review, I wasn’t too impressed with this review, hundreds of people have e-mailed me saying they love the film and specifically different parts of the film. Some people love the pharmaceutical part and others love the break down of The Union. I guess what I’m saying is everybody has their own opinion of things and the MO is just one opinion that many people would not agree with including me. For instance several universities and colleges have purchased an educational copy of the film for their university libraries, so if colleges and universities think our film is good enough to teach their students, I would say the director took the right approach because as far as I know, we’re the ONLY cannabis film be taught at colleges and universities. I wouldn’t say that there was one specific message we were trying to relay, we were just trying to educate people on all the things we had learned threw our journey in making the film, and even if after watching the film, you don’t agree with what we said, it’s going to make you think, and by getting you to think, you can do some of your own research and come to your own conclusion, rather than being pushed into one direction or another, and that is the BEST way to educate someone.
Q. SMtF: Do you have any plans for future documentaries? Maybe one specifically geared towards medical marijuana or industrial hemp?
A. A.S.: Yes! we have many plans to make many different films, dramatic features as well as other documentaries, but we have no plans in the near future to make another film on cannabis or hemp. We want to learn about different topics and subjects, and we really want to work on some great dramatic features and even though me and my crew still talk every week, we both have some idea’s about different projects we would like to explore.
Q. SMtF: What can we, the marijuana supporters, do to help the cause? What is the most efficient use of our time/energy/money/etc.?
A. A.S.: Unfortunately, I cant help you much in this question, I’m not much of an activist, like I said, I stand by what we explained in the film, but knowing what exaclty to do to help the cause, I wish I knew the answer. I think education is the key, but you can also check out organizations like L.E.A.P and the MPP and the BCMP they would be able to help you better with that question.
Q. SMtF: What is your favorite memory from the creation of The Union which we did not get to see (i.e. it didn’t make the final cut)?
A. A.S.: We had some great clips from Chris Rock & Bill Maher stand up, that worked amazingly with certain segments of the film, they were entertaining and hilarious, but HBO wouldn’t sell them to us unless we got releases from each of them and we didn’t have the money to pay Chris Rock to get a release from him. Bill was willing to do it, but he was shooting Religulous at the time and was under contract not to appear in any other documentaries at the time, it was too bad, they were some great clips.
Q. @MaryJCannabian: Is there any chance of–and would you consider–re-releasing The Union into theatres?
A. A.S.: I WISH!!!!!! We fought as hard as you possibly could to get The Union into theatres, and we almost had a theatrical deal with Saville, but it fell through. I think the only way to see the film on the big screen now, is to organize screenings yourself, many colleges and universities as I mentioned are arranging screenings for their students, or students are arranging screenings at their schools. We were thinking about doing a huge grass roots promotion next year (no pun intended) asking people to get a copy of the film and organize a screening in their local area for 4/20 next year, maybe something like that might work, the Internet is an amazing marketing tool these days.
Q. @MaryJCannabian: Do you know of any politicians, Canadian or otherwise, or other groups/organizations who have watched The Union and discussed it with you?
A. A.S.: Besides the colleges and universities that I spoke of, NO, nobody’s discussed it with me, but I have herd rumbles from some heavy political people in B.C have seen the film, and have commented to the director… in closed doors and off the record, of course. Saying that if people actually watched The Union that it could be the educational piece, that pushes decisions over the top, but again that was just one politicians perspective.
Q. @MaryJCannabian: What do you think of Bill C-15 and the Tory government bringing in mandatory minimum sentencing (1 plant can get you 6 to 9 months in jail)?
A. A.S.: The new bill is ridiculous, hard core dealers don’t care what the penalty is, in fact right now all the shootings in the Vancouver area our because of ONE thing, “Control of the drug market” Cannabis has reached a ten year high, selling at around $3100 a pound and cocaine is at $50,000 a key. The gangs who control most of the shipping of the product across the border are robbing each other and shooting each other, all that this bill is going to do is wipe out allot of the ma & pa grow operations and push more into the hands of the gangsters, who will take the risk regardless of the penalties because the price would go up. Were seeing this in Mexico too, The Economist just wrote a great article about this last month, simple equation: penalties get stiffer, prices go up, because supply cant meet the demand, gangsters who control most of the demand will hurt people in order to protect there underground profits because they cant take there competition to court.
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Thank you again for your time and support, Mr. Scorgie!
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April 29th, 2009 at 4:03 pm
[...] With all due respect to Mr. Scorgie, we fully stand by our original position. Read more of Show Me the Facts’ interview with Adam Scorgie here. [...]