Hemp for Victory
| Hemp For Victory | |
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| Directed by | Raymond Evans |
| Produced by | U.S. Department of Agriculture |
| Written by | Brittain B. Robinson |
| Starring | Lee D. Vickers (Narrator) |
| Music by | Reuben Ford (Monaural) |
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Release date
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Running time
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14 minutes |
| Language | English |
Hemp for Victory is a black-and-white United States government film made during World War II and released in 1942, explaining the uses of hemp, encouraging farmers to grow as much as possible.
The film was made to encourage farmers to grow hemp for the war effort because other industrial fibers, often imported from overseas, were in short supply. The film shows a history of hemp and hemp products, how hemp is grown, and how hemp is processed into rope, cloth, cordage, and other products.
Before 1989, the film was relatively unknown. The United States government denied ever having made such a film. The United States Department of Agriculture library and the Library of Congress told all interested parties that no such movie was made by the USDA or any branch of the US government. Two VHS copies were recovered and donated to the Library of Congress on 19 May 1989 by Maria Farrow, Carl Packard, and Jack Herer.
The only known copy in 1976 was a 3/4" broadcast quality copy of the film that was originally obtained by William Conde in 1976 from a reporter for the Miami Herald and the Ethiopian Zion Coptic Church of Jamaica. It was given in trust that it would be made available to as many as possible. It was put into the hands of Jack Herer by William Conde during the 1984 OMI (Oregon Marijuana Initiative). The film 20 years later is now available in numerous locations on the Internet.
In July 1989, Jack Herer together with Chris Wright, of the Grassroots Party, attempted to obtain a copy from the National Archives where it was listed, but the curators were unable to locate the film. Subsequently, in May 1990, the founder of The Institute for Hemp, J.T. Birrenbach, recovered a copy of the film from the National Archives. The film was a two part film the first section being 6:46 the second being 7:16 long. Together the approx 15 minute film detailed the cultivation of Cannabis for fiber. This was the first recovery of the film from a government source. This film can now be downloaded from the National Archives
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