REVIEW>>
WAITING TO INHALE
DIRECTED BY Jed Riffe
Monday, February 13
Engineered Air Theatre (Epcor Centre)
The legalization of marijuana for medical use in the United States has been a contentious issue for many, many years. This has led to a proliferation of groups fighting for and against the cause and, similarly, for the broadcast and print space to air these opinions. But never has a filmmaker so effectively projected his stand on the issue as Jed Riffe in Waiting to Inhale, a compelling documentary personifying the relentless battle for medical access to the drug.
As with other polarizing issues that garner their fair share of attention – the death penalty, abortion – a feature-length film on the legalization of marijuana runs the risk of turning off a saturated, news savvy public. But the film weaves an intricate account of marijuana’s context within American society, both prior to and after its prohibition in 1937, and its history of denied use as a medicinal drug despite the benefits is fascinating.
This blend of scientific and anecdotal information, and the political factors denying marijuana’s legalization add legitimacy to Riffe’s film. Otherwise, Waiting to Inhale may have run the risk of becoming emotionally manipulative, instead, it provides a solid, credible account of those seeking this medical alternative and those who fight.
And it is their stories that anchor Waiting to Inhale. These are not the brain-dead junkies, failing to contribute to society and looking for a free ride, that the anti-drug movement leads people to believe. In his subjects, Riffe has found the most unexpected and non-stereotypical of medical marijuana crusaders – who are likely the norm within the movement. Mae Nutt is a mother who lost two sons to cancer and who was given more time with her sons because of the drug. Riffe also interviews Robert Randall and Irvin Rosenfeld, articulate and intelligent crusaders who were among the first to receive medical marijuana in a federal program started in 1975, and then shut down in 1992.
Riffe also provides chilling footage of a federal raid on the farms of the Wo/Men’s Alliance for Medical Marijuana, a co-operative that provides people access to marijuana for medical use as well as emotional support and benefits through communal work on the farm.
With many of the film’s subjects suffering from extremely debilitating, if not terminal, illnesses, the making of Waiting to Inhale was literally a race against time. Both disturbing and enlightening in its contemplations, it provides a timely look into the marginalization of a group already marginalized.
Waiting to Inhale is part of the Movies that Matter film series and has an exclusive one-day engagement at the Engineered Air Theatre on Monday, February 13. |
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