American Pot Story: Oaksterdam (2023)

In 2007 Oaksterdam University, a place of higher learning dedicated to the growth, understanding, and legalization of marijuana, was founded by Richard Lee. This quickly snowballed into something bigger, aiming to open the world’s eyes to the reality that marijuana can be used for good. Joined by Dale Sky Jones, Richard began fighting for the legalization of marijuana on the national stage–and from here, things got crazy. American Pot Story: Oaksterdam tells the story of Dale and Richard as they advocate for change.

What American Pot Story: Oaksterdam needs to do is present this idea in a way that skeptics, including myself, can appreciate. Those viewers that are already on board with legalizing marijuana on a national level will easily fall in love with the film–but I need to be given a reason to appreciate what is being said and done. People like me need to be convinced to appreciate the things that play out on screen–but American Pot Story: Oaksterdam doesn’t attempt to appeal to a wide-ranging audience, pigeonholing itself, and making it difficult for viewers like me to appreciate the film as a whole.

There are some oddities that occur throughout the course of American Pot Story: Oaksterdam including things like people literally crying over the fact that marijuana hasn’t been legalized. It’s hard to take some of the individuals on screen seriously when they are so bent out of shape over things that ultimately seem trivial in the grand scheme of the world’s issues. For viewers like me, ones that are already disconnected from the subject, these play out like temper tantrums, and I need a reason why these things are so important. What American Pot Story: Oaksterdam doesn’t do well enough, is give viewers a real reason why marijuana should be legalized. Viewers constantly hear the how, but rarely the why–and that hangs viewers out to dry–often unable to truly appreciate the things being said throughout the course of the documentary.

There are times when the push to legalize marijuana is compared to physically being raped, the Civil Rights Movement, Women’s Sufferage, and Jim Crow Laws–and this alone makes this topic laughable. I think it’s only fair to remind readers of the fact that this is a topic that doesn’t mean much to me–but the reality is that when you compare something like marijuana to those aforementioned atrocities, viewers everywhere begin to question its legitimacy. American Pot Story: Oaksterdam, a documentary that already needed to prove itself, falls further from grace with these remarks. I’m not sure there’s any excuse for mentioning these things in the same breath as the legalization of marijuana, but Dale and others do it regardless. I’ll never be able to wrap my head around these remarks, and the further removed I am from the film, the less I like it.

American Pot Story: Oaksterdam is controversial from the start, and there’s no arguing that. If it weren’t a controversial topic there wouldn’t be a need for a documentary–and here we are. The problem is that the film doesn’t do itself any favors, digging itself a deeper hole, and refusing to provide genuine answers. American Pot Story: Oaksterdam never develops as needed, and that’s due in part to the fact that individuals like Richard and Dale make asinine comments throughout the course of the film. This documentary is a struggle to appreciate from beginning to end.

Directed by Dan Katzir & Ravit Markus.

Starring Dale Sky Jones, Richard Lee, etc.

⭐⭐⭐⭐/10