The fourth annual CannaBus Culture Film Festival is hitting the road this fall, with the first stop in Miami. It makes the first time the festival has made a stop in Florida.

The film festival features three feature-length films and many short films, many of them documentaries about cannabis culture in America. The goal is to screen movies across many different genres that will “elevate and educate the community through fictional narratives and educational documentaries,” according to the festival website.

The festival also offers awards for filmmakers. They include an award for Best Feature Film, Best Short Film, Audience Choice Award, Best Actor and Best Director.

If you can’t make it to Miami for the Sept. 28 festival, no worries. The CannaBus Culture Film Festival is moving on to Seattle and Portland later this fall.

Why A Cannabis Culture Film Festival?

Tim Mattson, director of the CannaBus Culture Film Festival, told Miami New Times that the festival is “trying to show the positive aspects of the [cannabis] culture through the films we present.”

He added that the festival’s mission is to “enlighten and educate people about what the cannabis community can be or what it actually is.”

The film festival started in 2016 in New York City. In 2017 and 2018, it traveled to Colorado and Vermont.

Films at the Cannabis Festival

The festival features three full-length films. They are:

“The Blueberry Farmer.” A documentary about Bernie Ellis, who was arrested for growing medical marijuana at Trace View Farm along the Natchez Trace in Tennessee. Ellis, an epidemiologist, was using cannabis to treat himself and his patients who had cancer and AIDS. He has been described as “Tennessee’s favorite felon.”

“Unprescribed.” A documentary that focuses on how veterans are trading in prescription drugs for cannabis. The film was made by producer, director, and military veteran Steve Ellmore. On the web page for the film, Ellmore describes the documentary as a “self-funded, passion project conceived after learning the benefits of medical marijuana. As a military veteran and suicide survivor, I took it upon myself to share the stories of veterans who are all too hesitant to speak to others outside of the veteran community about their PTSD and war-related traumas.”

“Wall of Flesh: A Vintage Comedy.” A feature film this is a slapstick comedy that advertises itself as “finally, a movie about a middle-aged white man getting the band back together.” It also features sex, drugs and “deep soul jazz.”

The festival also features 22 short films.

The CannaBus Culture Film Festival is yet another example of how cannabis is moving more into the mainstream, or at least the acceptable alternative edges of the mainstream. That’s true even in places where marijuana is not legal for recreational purposes, such as Miami.