Honeydew is a remote location in California, where, in the late 1970s, a group of people gathered with a common dream: to live free from any constraints. Here, the illegal cultivation of cannabis had long been a source of livelihood. With the legalization of recreational marijuana in 2016, Honeydew has attracted entrepreneurs interested in the business, threatening the local growers. The film is a reflection on a changing world.
Since the 1960s, Honeydew has been seen as a place inhabited by criminals and drug traffickers. Spending a few summers there as laborers on marijuana plantations, we found that these labels do not match reality. Honeydew is a community of people united by an ideal: to live free to be themselves, far from the canons imposed by society. Maureen, Gary, Cody in fact have not hidden themselves in Honeydew, they have chosen it and have built their lives there. Closing the doors to the press has meant feeding a myth that wants them to be outlaws on the fringes of society. Thanks to our perseverance we have built a relationship of trust with them that has made the inhabitants of Honeydew see in us the possibility of realizing the desire to change the collective narrative that describes them as delinquents. That's why they decided to let us film them, and that's why we follow them: to tell their lives, giving them justice, accompanying them in a unique historical moment, that of the legalization.
Antonietta Bruni (Produttrice delegata); Edoardo Rossi (Line Producer); Maria Ester Fiore (Coordinatrice di produzione)
Maureen Catalina, Cody King.