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Documentary

This section includes documentary about psychoactive substances.

Our site provides an introduction only information about movies, we recommend to download them from the Internet or to buy DVDs.


Fantastic Fungi

Director: Louie Schwartzberg
Release Year: 2019
Genres: documentary
Runtime: 80 min
Production Co: Moving Art Studio, Reconsider
Country: USA

Synopsis: Fantastic Fungi is a descriptive time-lapse journey about the magical, mysterious and medicinal world of fungi and their power to heal, sustain and contribute to the regeneration of life on Earth that began 3.5 billion years ago.

 

Grass is Greener

Director: Fab 5 Freddy
Release Year: 2019
Genres: documentary
Runtime: 97 min
Production Co: Netflix
Country: USA | Singapore

Synopsis: Packed with legends and stars this film chronicles the introduction of cannabis to the United States. At first considered a harmless and even healthy plant, it was later criminalized by government officials interested in keeping white women away from black men. The impact on the music industry, from jazz to hip hop is examined throughout the film.

 

The Culture High

Director: Kevin MacDonald
Release Year: 2014
Genres: documentary
Runtime: 120 min
Production Co: Score G Productions, Sophia Entertainment
Country: UK | USA | Canada | Spain

Synopsis: The makers of the critically acclaimed 'The Union:The Business Behind Getting High', bring you the profound exploration of one of the most prolific wars of our time. 'The Culture High' is the riveting story that tears into the very fiber of modern day marijuana prohibition to reveal the truth behind the arguments and motives governing both those who support and oppose the existing marijuana laws.

 

Marley

Director: Kevin MacDonald
Release Year: 2012
Genres: documentary, biography, music
Runtime: 145 min
Production Co: Shangri-La Entertainment, Tuff Gong Pictures, Cowboy Films
Country: USA

Synopsis: Bob Marley's universal appeal, impact on music history and role as a social and political prophet is both unique and unparalleled. The definitive life story of the musician, revolutionary, and legend, from his early days to his rise to international super-stardom. Made with the support of the Marley family, there is rare footage, incredible performances and revelatory interviews with the people that knew him best.

 

Magic Trip: Ken Kesey's Search for a Kool Place

Directors: Alex Gibney, Alison Ellwood
Release Year: 2011
Genres: documentary
Runtime: 103 min
Production Co: Imaginary Forces, Jigsaw Productions, Optimum Releasing
Country: USA

Synopsis: In 1964, Ken Kesey, the famed author of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," set off on a legendary, LSD-fuelled cross-country road trip to the New York World's Fair. He was joined by "The Merry Band of Pranksters," a renegade group of counterculture truth-seekers, including Neal Cassady, the American icon immortalized in Kerouac's "On the Road," and the driver and painter of the psychedelic Magic Bus. Kesey and the Pranksters intended to make a documentary about their trip, shooting footage on 16MM, but the film was never finished and the footage has remained virtually unseen. With Magic Trip, Oscar-winning director Alex Gibney and Alison Ellwood were given unprecedented access to this raw footage by the Kesey family. They worked with the Film Foundation, HISTORY and the UCLA Film Archives to restore over 100 hours of film and audiotape, and have shaped an invaluable document of this extraordinary piece of American history.

 

Dirty Pictures

Director: Etienne Sauret
Release Year: 2010
Genres: documentary
Runtime: 90 min
Production Co:
Country: USA

Synopsis: Alexander 'Sasha' Shulgin is the scientist behind more than 200 psychedelic compounds including MDMA, more commonly known as Esctasy. Considered to be one of the the greatest chemists of the twentieth century, Sasha's vast array of discoveries have had a profound impact in the field of psychedelic research. 'Dirty Pictures' delves into the lifework of Dr. Shulgin and scientists alike, explores the world of these scientists; their findings and motivations, their ideas, and their beliefs as to how research in this particular field can aid in unlocking the complexities of the mind.

 

DMT: The Spirit Molecule

Director: Mitch Schultz
Release Year: 2010
Genres: documentary
Runtime: 74 min
Production Co: Spectral Alchemy, Synthetic Pictures
Country: USA

Synopsis: The Spirit Molecule investigates dimethyltryptamine (DMT), an endogenous psychoactive compound, which exists in humans and numerous species of plants and animals. The documentary traces Dr. Rick Strassman's government-sanctioned, human DMT research and its many trials, tribulations, and inconceivable realizations. A closer examination of DMT's effects through the lens of two traditionally opposed concepts, science and spirituality, The Spirit Molecule explores the connections between cutting-edge neuroscience, quantum physics, and human spirituality. Strassman's research, and the experiences of the human test subjects before, during, and after the intense clinical trials, raises many intriguing questions. A variety of experts voice their unique thoughts and experiences with DMT within their respective fields. As Strassman's story unfolds, the contributors weigh in on his remarkable theories, including the synthesis of DMT in our brain's pineal gland, its link to near-death & alien-abduction experiences, the history/future of psychedelics, and the uncanny likeness to ancient religious texts describing prophets with DMT-like experiences.

 

The First Rasta /Le premier rasta/

Director: Helene Lee, Christophe Farnarier
Release Year: 2010
Genres: documentary, biography
Runtime: 90 min
Production Co: Kidam
Country: France

Synopsis: Chronicling the life story of pioneering Jamaican Leonard Percival Howell and his establishment of a unique social community in the colonial Jamaica of the 1930s, Le Premier Rasta (The First Rasta) documents the oft-obscured beginnings of the now world reknown Rastafarian movement. Tracing Howell’s colourful journey through the Bolshevism, New Thought, Anarchism, Hinduism, and of course Garveyism characterising his early life, director Helene Lee presents an alluring, yet clear-eyed account of the political and spiritual mileaux from which today’s Rastafarian faith grew.

 

William S. Burroughs: A Man Within

Director: Yony Leyser
Release Year: 2010
Genres: documentary, biography
Runtime: 88 min
Production Co: BulletProof Film
Country: USA

Synopsis: Featuring never-before-seen archival footage of Burroughs, as well as exclusive interviews with colleagues and confidants including John Waters, Patti Smith, Iggy Pop, Gus Van Sant, Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, Sonic Youth, Laurie Anderson, Amiri Baraka, Jello Biafra, and David Cronenberg, WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS: A MAN WITHIN is a probing, yet loving look at the man whose works at once savaged conservative ideals, spawned countercultural movements, and reconfigured 20th century culture. The film is narrated by Peter Weller, with a soundtrack by Patti Smith and Sonic Youth. Burroughs was one of the first writers to break the boundaries of queer and drug culture in the 1950's. His novel Naked Lunch is one of the most recognized and respected literary works of the 20th century and has influenced generations of artists. The intimate documentary breaks the surface of the troubled and brilliant world of one of the greatest authors of all time.

 

Cannabis: The Evil Weed?

Director: Annabel Gillings
Release Year: 2009
Genres: documentary
Runtime: 59 min
Production Co: BBC Horizon
Country: United Kingdom

Synopsis: Cannabis, it’s merely a plant, a wild weed. But it produces a range of effects that is unmatched. To some, it’s a blissful release, while for others it’s something that seems to have unraveled their minds, and emptied their lives. This documentary tries to get to the bottom of the conflict, by asking the most basic questions about cannabis. Can it really cause schizophrenia? Can it lead you to take harder drugs? Or could cannabis even be good for you? The science is often so obscured by opinion, but what does the latest research reveal about the world’s favorite drug?

 

Is alcohol worse than ecstasy?

Director: Sophie Robinson
Release Year: 2009
Genres: documentary
Runtime: 49 min
Production Co: BBC
Country: United Kingdom

Synopsis: Recent research has analysed the link between the harmful effects of drugs relative to their current classification by law with some startling conclusions. Perhaps most startling of all is that alcohol, solvents and tobacco (all unclassified drugs) are rated more dangerous than ecstasy, 4-MTA and LSD (all class A drugs). If the current ABC system is retained, alcohol would be rated a class A drug and tobacco class B.
The scientists involved, including members of the government’s top advisory committee on drug classification, have produced a rigorous assessment of the social and individual harm caused by 20 of the UK’s most dangerous drugs and believe this should form the basis of future ranking. They think the current ABC system is arbitrary and not based on any scientific evidence.
The drug policies have remained unchanged over the last 40 years so should they be reformed in the light of new research?

 

Taboo - Drugs

Director:
Release Year: 2009
Genres: documentary
Runtime: 45 min
Production Co: National Geographic
Country: USA

Synopsis: Taboo examines at drug use around the world. It looks at San Pedro use in Peru, ecstasy use in the United States, and peyote use in Mexico.

 

Inside: LSD

Director: Pamela Caragol Wells
Release Year: 2009
Genres: documentary
Runtime: 47 min
Production Co: National Geographic
Country: USA

Synopsis: Could LSD be the next drug in your doctor's arsenal? New experiments have a few researchers believing that this "trippy" drug could become a pharmaceutical of the future, thinking it may enhance brain power, expand creativity, and cure disease. Outlawed in 1970, the street drug developed a reputation as the dangerous toy of the counterculture, capable of inspiring either moments of genius or a descent into madness. Now, National Geographic takes a fresh look into this psychedelic world, including the first human LSD trials in more than 35 years.

 

Inside: Marijuana

Director:
Release Year: 2009
Genres: documentary
Runtime: 48 min
Production Co: National Geographic
Country: USA

Synopsis: It is estimated that more than 200 million people around the world smoke it. Users represent a cross section of society, from teens to the elderly, from top-earning medical and legal professionals to housewives, labourers and truck drivers. Broad demand has made it, by some estimates, the single most valuable cash crop in the U.S., spawning a shadowy multibillion-dollar industry that thrives in communities throughout America.


Cannahuana - The Moweed

Director:
Release Year: 2008
Genres: documentary
Runtime: 81 min
Production Co:
Country: Jamaica, Germany, Switzerland

Synopsis: With the help of time lapse animated film technology the viewer is given an insight into the plants dimension with one hour becoming a single second. The viewers become immersed in the plants world and are presented with a consciousness expanding natural experience. The use of cutting-edge macroscope technology turns the excursion into the macro world into a special journey...


Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson

Director: Alex Gibney
Release Year: 2008
Genres: documentary, biography
Runtime: 120 min
Production Co: BBC Storyville
Country: USA

Synopsis: Fueled by a raging libido, Wild Turkey, and superhuman doses of drugs, Thompson was a true "free lance, " goring sacred cows with impunity, hilarity, and a steel-eyed conviction for writing wrongs. Focusing on the good doctor's heyday, 1965 to 1975, the film includes clips of never-before-seen (nor heard) home movies, audiotapes, and passages from unpublished manuscripts.

 

Ultimate Grow 3

Director: Jorge Cervantes
Release Year: 2008
Genres: documentary
Runtime: 38 min
Production Co: High Times
Country: Canada

Synopsis: The third film from Jorge Cervantes, a guide to Amsterdam and more.


Ultimate Grow 2

Director: Jorge Cervantes
Release Year: 2008
Genres: documentary
Runtime: 94 min
Production Co: High Times
Country: Canada

Synopsis: On his first DVD, international ganja guide Jorge Cervantes taught you everything you need to know to go from seed to harvest. This time, the best-selling author of "Marijuana Horticulture: the Indoor/Outdoor Medical Grower's Bible" takes you on a garden tour of his home country, Spain. You'll grow indoors, out-doors, hydroponically - and even plant a guerrilla garden hidden deep in the Spanish countryside. Filled with the common-sense advice found in his monthly column in HIGH TIMES, Jorge's newest effort clearly explains how experts and beginners alike can get started, get growing and yield huge amounts of marijuana - no matter where you are or how you're growing.
Expert horticulturist Jorge Cervantes shows beginners how to grow their own marijuana using the tricks he's developed over the years.


The Union: the business behind getting high

Director: Brett Harvey
Release Year: 2007
Genres: documentary
Runtime: 104 min
Production Co: Score G Productions
Country: Canada

Synopsis: BC's illegal marijuana trade industry has evolved into a business giant, dubbed by some involved as 'The Union', Commanding upwards of $7 billion Canadian annually. With up to 85% of 'BC Bud' being exported to the United States, the trade has become an international issue. Follow filmmaker Adam Scorgie as he demystifies the underground market and brings to light how an industry can function while remaining illegal. Through growers, police officers, criminologists, economists, doctors, politicians and pop culture icons, Scorgie examines the cause and effect nature of the business - an industry that may be profiting more by being illegal.

 

World`s Most Dangerous Drug

Director: David Murdock
Release Year: 2006
Genres: documentary
Runtime: 48 min
Production Co: National Geographic
Country: USA

Synopsis: On the streets it is referred to as Crystal, Ice, and Crank. Methamphetamines are viciously addictive and provide the hyperactivity effects of Cocaine along with the delusional effects of LSD. As opposed to getting a short `high’ from other drugs, this one will keep users pumped up from 6 to 12 hours and create feelings of paranoia, invulnerability, increased strength, euphoria, and may cause some to react in a violent fashion. As for health concerns, it rots the teeth, suppresses the appetite, induces insomnia, and causes brain damage among other things. Its ease of use makes it even more insidious as it can be swallowed, snorted, injected, or smoked and it is cheap to buy or can be easily manufactured by almost anyone.

 

Ultimate Grow

Director: Jorge Cervantes
Release Year: 2006
Genres: documentary
Runtime: 91 min
Production Co: High Times
Country: Canada

Synopsis: For housebound horticulturalists who long to grow healthy and hearty marijuana plants, Indoor Marijuana Horticulture: The Indoor Grower's Bible author Jorge Cervantes offers a comprehensive instructional guide to planting, growing, and drying cannabis that will turn even the most inexperienced of gardeners into seasoned green thumbs.

 

Hippie Masala: Forever in India /Hippie Masala - Fur immer in Indien/

Directors: Ulrich Grossenbacher, Damaris Luthi
Release Year: 2006
Genres: documentary
Runtime: 94 min
Production Co: Fair & Ugly
Country: Switzerland

Synopsis: This documentary follows a group of European former hippies who relocated to India 40 years ago and never returned home. Once idealistic flower children, the now aging baby-boomers turned to the East in search of spiritual meaning, and many of them found what they were looking for, though in far different ways than they anticipated.

 

Buy the Ticket, Take the Ride: Hunter S. Thompson on Film

Director: Tom Thurman
Release Year: 2006
Genres: documentary, biography
Runtime: 73 min
Production Co: FBN Productions, Starz Entertainment
Country: USA

Synopsis: "Buy The Ticket, Take The Ride: Hunter S. Thompson On Film is a personal, intimate look at Thompson with a special emphasis on his Hollywood relationships. It captures the legacy and "gonzo" spirit of one of this century's most notorious figures - a man whose life and work regularly intersected with some of the biggest names in the world of film, politics, journalism and sports. The documentary features interviews with Hunter's inner circle of family and friends, but the thrust of the film is focused on the manner in which his life often overlapped with numerous Hollywood celebrities who became his close friends, such as Johnny Depp and Benicio Del Toro (Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas); Bill Murray (Where the Buffalo Roam); Sean Penn, John Cusack, Hunter's wife Anita, son Juan, former Senators George McGovern and Gary Hart, Tom Wolfe, William F. Buckley, Gary Busey, Harry Dean Stanton, Ralph Steadman and others.

 

Other Worlds /D'autres mondes/

Director: Jan Kounen
Release Year: 2004
Genres: documentary
Runtime: 74 min
Production Co: A.J.O.Z. Films
Country: France

Synopsis: Other Worlds is an intriguing and well-lensed first-person introduction to the parallel universe that some Amazonian indigenous peoples consider to be ‘reality.’ Jan Kounen (Blueberry) went through more than 100 sacred-plant elixir sessions with a shaman during four years. Blending talking heads with heady imagery, film makes an excellent case for the meeting up of contemporary science and ancient wisdom.

 

Cannabis Cultivation - I Grow Chronic

Director: Mr. Green
Release Year: 2004
Genres: documentary
Runtime: 85 min
Production Co:
Country:

Synopsis: Hosted by the mysterious Mr. Green, this in-depth documentary takes a candid look at the raising and harvesting of the hemp plant in North America. Step by step, Mr. Green takes the viewer through the process of planning and building an indoor hemp atrium.


Breakfast with Hunter

Director: Wayne Ewing
Release Year: 2003
Genres: documentary
Runtime: 91 min
Production Co:
Country: USA

Synopsis: The debut documentary feature from television director Wayne Ewing (Homicide: Life on the Street), Breakfast With Hunter attempts to offer viewers an inside look into the life and mind of gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson. Along with discussions of his past writings, the film explores the tumultuous process of adapting Thompson's most famous book, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, to film. Along with writers P.J. O'Rourke and George Plimpton, interviews are featured with actors John Cusack, Benicio del Toro, and Johnny Depp, who played Thompson when Fear and Loathing finally came to fruition under the direction of Terry Gilliam.

 

Last Hippie Standing

Director: Marcus Robbin
Release Year: 2003
Genres: documentary
Runtime: 45 min
Production Co: Tangiji Film
Country: Germany

Synopsis: "Last Hippie Standing" is a video clip style portrait about the hippie generation. Thirty years ago, this was a movement which came to Goa to find something they couldn't find at home. Many returned, a few stayed. Goa, the hippie paradise of the 60's is our point where we start to search for "the last hippies". This former Portuguese colony in the south of India was for many the final destination after adventurous travels through Greece, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Dreamlike untouched beaches promised to be a new holy land, which was also the spritual basis for Alex Garland's novel "The Beach". After viewing historical Super8 material we started searching for the famous beaches and found a new youth culture which seemed to be similar to the old hippie culture. Raver, Part-Time-Hippies, Backpacker und "normal" people enjoyed the beaches. We met people from Japan, Israel, Australia and the UK. Anjuna Beach is the center of the infamous Goa parties. Here, the millenium celebrations promised the best of all Goa parties. This is where the youth of the world demonstrated their understanding of fun.

 

Liquid Crystal Vision

Director: Tantric Demon, Omananda
Release Year: 2002
Genres: documentary
Runtime: 60 min
Production Co:
Country: USA

Synopsis: Liquid Crystal Vision captures the essence of the psychedelic experience as it explores a mystical movement from its roots, explaining in scientific detail why the children of the sixties seek out the most sacred sites on Earth to dance themselves into a transcendental state.

 

Getting High - The History of LSD (LSvcD)

Director:
Release Year: 2001
Genres: documentary
Runtime: 50 min
Production Co: History Channel
Country: USA

Synopsis: This program is part of the popular series from the History Channel. This episode takes a trip to discover the facts about LSD. Dr. Timothy Leary, a respected Harvard professor, had great success with his studies of the hallucinogen. He noted improved scholastic performance, a drop in prisoner recidivism rates, and more engagement with reality by schizophrenics. There was just one problem: The establishment did not like the experiments, and soon Leary and LSD found themselves on the wrong side of the law. The program looks at some users of LSD, from Aldous Huxley to Cary Grant to Adele Davis. Tom Wolfe, who chronicled the exploits of fellow writer Ken Kesey and his Merry Pranksters, in {-The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test}, shares his insights about the psychedelic scene of the 1960s. LSD is compared and contrasted with other mind-altering substances that have been used through the centuries.

 

Timothy Leary's Last Trip

Directors: O.B. Babbs, A.J. Catoline
Release Year: 1997
Genres: documentary, biography
Runtime: 56 min
Production Co: Hazardous Media
Country: USA

Synopsis: Author, educator, and philosopher Dr. Timothy Leary was wildly controversial throughout his life, so it came as no surprise he would also choose a controversial way to die. Timothy Leary's Last Trip documents Leary's life and career, from his days at West Point through his years as an LSD guru (he coined the phrase "Tune in, turn on, drop out") to his final days as he prepared for his death by broadcasting his last days over the internet.

 

The Beyond Within: The Rise and Fall of LSD

Director: Sidney Cohen
Release Year: 1987
Genres: documentary
Runtime: 82 min
Production Co: BBC
Country: USA

 

Synopsis: The documentary embedded below is a two-part study of LSD, undertaken in 1986 by the BBC Documentary series "Everyman". This refreshingly frank and impartial study of the discovery and development of the notorious hallucinogenic drug is notably free of moral judgemment, and features contributions from such legendary heroes of psychedelia as Albert Hoffman - the Swiss scientist who discovered the drug in 1943 - Aldous Huxley - author of 'The Doors of Perception' - Ken Kesey - author of 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest' - and a certain Lord Christopher Mayhew.

 

Woodstock. 3 Days of Peace & Music

Director: Michael Wadleigh
Release Year: 1970
Genres: documentary
Runtime: 216 min
Production Co: Wadleigh-Maurice
Country: USA

 

Synopsis: This iconic musical documentary covers the three-day 1969 music festival on the property of Max Yasger's farm that symbolized the late 1960s in terms of musical, social and political ideology of the era. American audiences are introduced to Ten Years After, featuring guitar great Alvin Lee. Jimi Hendix, The Who and Joe Cocker give riveting performances. As naked flower children romp, the New York freeway is closed because of traffic congestion. Music lovers leave their cars and travel on foot only survive torrential downpours of rain, food shortages and non-stop music. Jefferson Airplane gives the wake up call with their song "Volunteers Of America." Crosby, Stills and Nash deliver a memorable performance. John Sebastian gives an impromptu set with a borrowed guitar from Tim Hardin. Santana, Sly and The Family Stone, Sha-Na-Na, Arlo Guthrie, Richie Havens and Joan Baez also appear. The movie did big box office business and a successful three record set sold millions of copies. The Grateful Dead, Credence Clearwater Revival and Janis Joplin performed but were not shown in the film. The Dead's Jerry Garcia recalled that it was the worst live show the band ever did, ironic for a band known for their spirited live performances.

 

Hemp for Victory

Director: Raymond Evans
Release Year: 1942
Genres: documentary
Runtime: 14 min
Production Co: U.S. Department of Agriculture
Country: USA

Synopsis: An informational film produced to encourage farmers to grow hemp for the war effort during WW2. The film details the many industrial uses of hemp, including cloth and cordage, as well as a detailed history of the plant's use.