The makers of the acclaimed drug documentaries Cocaine Cowboys and Cocaine Cowboys II: Hustlin’ With the Godmother tackle a different opiate in their latest independent film, Square Grouper, which debuted on DVD
The movie chronicles the beginning of the pot revolution, looking at Colombian marijuana and a group of gutsy South Florida smugglers who brought it in. The documentary about the pot smuggling culture of the 1970s is named after the nickname given to the bales of marijuana that were often caught by unsuspecting Florida fisherman.
According to Magnolia’s press release: In 1979, the U.S. Customs Service reported that 87% of all marijuana seizures in the U.S. were made in the South Florida area. Due to the region’s 5,000 miles of coast and coastal waterways and close proximity to the Caribbean and Latin America, South Florida was a pot smuggler’s paradise. In sharp contrast to the brazenly violent cocaine cowboys of the 1980s, Miami marijuana smugglers were cooler, calmer, and for the most part, nonviolent.
Square Grouper focuses on three stories from the era: the infamous Black Tuna Gang, a group of savvy smugglers led by Robert Platshorn, the longest serving marijuana prisoner in U.S. history; the Ethiopian Zion Coptic church, whose members (including children) all smoked marijuana from morning till night and ran a massive pot dealing operation out of Miami Beach’s exclusive Star Island; and Everglades City, a tiny fishing village 80 miles west of Miami with a history of smuggling everything from endangered animals to rum to weed.
The DVD, which was priced at $26.98, includes more footage in deleted scenes and extended interviews.
Check out the documentary’s trailer:
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