MJ-interview

(Image via Mad River Union)

The successful 2011 play, Mary Jane: the Musical, has been turned into a movie after Emmy-nominated filmmaker John Howarth viewed the stage show and believed it would translate well to the silver screen.

The original play was produced by Dell’Arte International and included twelve local songwriters and featured Humboldt County-centric characters facing various issues in the marijuana culture. It had debuted at the Mad River Festival in Blue Lake, California, and quickly gained notoriety, sold out all its performances, and became the highest-grossing show in Dell’Arte’s 35-year production history.

The film based on this play is called ‘Mary Jane: A Musical Potumentary’ and “aims to fuse the staged production and its artistic perspectives with documentary footage of the marijuana-growing world, illustrating the reality behind the fiction.”

According to this article in the Mad River Union, “Dell’Arte specializes in the theatre of place, reflecting the issues and values of the local community. This is echoed in the movie, which is really cinema of place. It’s not so much a movie about marijuana, but a movie about Humboldt County, about our towns, our neighbors and us. It’s about our local culture, which is cannabis infused, whether you like it or not.”

Dell’Arte International started a Kickstarter campaign in September 2014 to successfully fund the film, which culminated in a Green Carpet World Premiere at the Eureka Theater on Friday, June 10th.

Mary Jane: A Musical Potumentary received rave reviews for its Eureka Theatre premiere; however, there are currently no additional screening dates.

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