Lionel Tate in a scene from “Not Just Another Day”
Courtesy of Planet Froth Productions
As more states continue to legalize, a disproportionate number of black Americans are still being arrested and incarcerated for minor cannabis offenses. It’s a maddening dichotomy addressed in a gripping new short film “Not Just Another Day,” set to receive a virtual world premiere at the San Luis Obispo International Film Festival this March.
The documentary, which runs for fifteen minutes and is produced by From The Earth, a minority-founded and operated cannabis retailer, tells the story of Lionel Tate, a young black man who was arrested in 2015 in Los Angeles for possessing a small amount of marijuana. An aspiring chef, Tate, then 23, was on his way to give a security deposit to a property manager to lease an apartment when a police officer pulled him over and found the money in addition to the marijuana. Using first-person narration from Tate, as well as interviews with key figures in his life, such as his mother and criminal defense attorney, “Not Just Another Day” relates what happened in the aftermath of the arrest.
Though Tate’s case does not have a dire ending—he received three years of probation rather than face a five-year prison sentence— the viewer is starkly reminded that he “was one of 142,000 black Americans arrested that year for marijuana possession. Of those incarcerated, 70% will go back to jail.”
This…
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Lionel Tate in a scene from “Not Just Another Day”
Courtesy of Planet Froth Productions
As more states continue to legalize, a disproportionate number of black Americans are still being arrested and incarcerated for minor cannabis offenses. It’s a maddening dichotomy addressed in a gripping new short film “Not Just Another Day,” set to receive a virtual world premiere at the San Luis Obispo International Film Festival this March.
The documentary, which runs for fifteen minutes and is produced by From The Earth, a minority-founded and operated cannabis retailer, tells the story of Lionel Tate, a young black man who was arrested in 2015 in Los Angeles for possessing a small amount of marijuana. An aspiring chef, Tate, then 23, was on his way to give a security deposit to a property manager to lease an apartment when a police officer pulled him over and found the money in addition to the marijuana. Using first-person narration from Tate, as well as interviews with key figures in his life, such as his mother and criminal defense attorney, “Not Just Another Day” relates what happened in the aftermath of the arrest.
Though Tate’s case does not have a dire ending—he received three years of probation rather than face a five-year prison sentence— the viewer is starkly reminded that he “was one of 142,000 black Americans arrested that year for marijuana possession. Of those incarcerated, 70% will go back to jail.”
This…
