FANDOR on HIGH THERE: “Part Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas, part Cheech & Chong. Watch with snacks!"

The folks behind Fandor, the streaming film site now offering High There for viewing on various platforms and websites, have written about the nonfiction gonzo comedy and bonafide cult film on The Fandorian blogsite.

Check out High There on Fandor... and dig what the film aficionados at Fandor have to say about our work:

"If you’re looking for a journey through a different sort of subculture, we just added one juicy nugget of gonzo-bizarro alt-American history: High There, a documentary-ish movie about a marijuana travel series gone terribly wrong. This dark, reality-blurring comedy is the brainchild of Wayne Darwen, the famous innovator of tabloid television (you’re welcome, world) here playing his barely-altered-ego Dave High. Part Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and part Cheech and Chong, this spiral of drugs and paranoia may be a way to fill the void left by Hunter S. Thompson. Watch with snacks. Fun fact: Wayne Darwen was the inspiration for Robert Downey, Jr.’s character in Natural Born Killers.”

Press Release: Meeting of Tommy Chong and Wayne Darwen brings new attention to HIGH THERE film

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Comedy legend Tommy Chong and High There star Wayne Darwen in historic meeting at Las Vegas Hempfest, October 3, 2015.

Ailing comedy legend reportedly "passed the cannabis comedy torch" to the man who plays Dave High

HOLLYWOOD (October 9)  The meeting of High There star Wayne Darwen and comedy legend Tommy Chong at the 2015 Las Vegas Hempfest has brought renewed attention to the nonfiction gonzo comedy film that was described as reigniting "a film genre made popular decades ago by the likes of Cheech and Chong."

Darwen, who directed High There with co-star Henry Goren, was at the October 3rd event to promote his film.  Chong was receiving a lifetime achievement award from festival organizers.  The pair got together several times during the day-long event, but it was a conversation backstage that drew attention around the world.

The New York Post and PageSix.com reported that Chong "passed the cannabis torch" to Darwen, instructing him to carry on his work with "pot humor"

Richard Johnson wrote:

"Chong graciously chatted backstage with Wayne Darwen, director and star of the cult comedy film High There.

“'Chong told Wayne to carry on the work of getting laughs with pot humor and passed the cannabis torch to a new generation,' said my witness. 'There were tears.'”

A photograph of the pair went viral within hours of the meeting on websites including 420 Magazine.

Chong announced from the Hempfest stage that he will soon be undergoing surgery for a recurrence of the cancer he'd hoped would be cured with cannabis.

Darwen and Goren worked the event with the High There street team, giving away dozens of limited edition DVDs, posters and collectible postcards, while also doing several radio and television interviews.  Goren caused a stir when he appeared wearing a gas mask, a trademark of his High There alter ego Roland Jointz.  He received online attention this week after he produced a doctor's prescription for the apparatus, stating it would protect him from irritating marijuana smoke.

High There is a Sam Peters International Productions Unlimited and Good Story Productions presentation of a Rat Lung picture, distributed by BRINKvision on limited edition DVD and VOD.

The film has received many rave reviews from indie movie websites, including A Bucket of Corn, which called High There "a perfect film," and Movie & TV Series Geek ("A perfect example of a memorable and really good piece of filmed cinema"). It was columnist Mark Day in The Australian who first reported the Cheech and Chong comparison.

View or download the new High There trailer at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cP8sJ1yA__g

Find additional photos and information at hightherethemovie.blogspot.com.

SAM PETERS PUBLIC RELATIONS NY LA LV LN HK

FOR INTERVIEWS, REVIEWS, PRESS MATERIALS

CONTACT: Sam Peters

goodstoryproductions@mac.com

PR Inside

Tommy Chong to Dave High: Passing the cannabis comedy torch

It was a touching moment at the Las Vegas Hempfest when comedy legend Tommy Chong passed the cannabis comedy torch to Wayne Darwen, director and star (as Dave High) of the gonzo nonfiction comedy High There.

One of Cheech and Chong’s classic routines is “Dave's Not Here."  The ailing Chong acknowledged that at the Hempfest, and on the cannabis comedy cinema scene, Dave is very much here.

Dave High.

High There "reignites a film genre made popular decades ago by the likes of Cheech and Chong.”

-- Mark Day, The Australian

HIGH THERE stars light up the Las Vegas Hempfest!

Henry Goren and Wayne Darwen, AKA Roland Jointz & Dave High, with comedy legend Tommy Chong at the 2015 Las Vegas Hempfest this weekend.  And Tommy wasn’t the only celeb rushing to get a photo with the High There team!

Afroman!

“Ganja Farmer” reggae star Marlon Asher!

Cali reggae star Ras Rebel!

Nuglife Radio host & cannabis activist Medicinal Mike!

Roland Jointz meets Phillip A. Bowl!

Press Release: HIGH THERE horrifies The Establishment

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Sam Peters, executive producer

"Not my cup of tea!" Australian columnist does about-face days after director criticizes mainstream movie star

Executive producer: "This film is not for elderly old timers who drink tea from a cup. The audience for High There likes their tea rolled in paper or lit in a pipe!"

Gonzo comedy film set for June 23rd release

HOLLYWOOD (MAY 24) -- A week after his praise of the new gonzo stoner comedy High There, veteran Australian journalist Mark Day has taken to his column once again to declare that the film "is not my cup of tea."

Day, who is marking his 56th year as a journalist, wrote last week in The Australian newspaper, correctly, that High There has been “hailed as a minor masterpiece” and “reignites a film genre made popular decades ago by the likes of Cheech and Chong.”

This morning he used his column to say: "I should not have written that. (High There) is a pointless rave... If this is gonzo, I’m a monkey’s uncle. Cheech and Chong were funny. This is not!"

Director and star Wayne Darwen had no comment on Day's latest column. 

But executive producer Sam Peters fired back.  "Pointless? This film helped get a man out of prison. Not gonzo? 'Gonzo' is defined as being 'of or associated with journalistic writing of an exaggerated, subjective, and fictionalized style -- bizarre or crazy.' This film, and the character Wayne Darwen portrays-- fit the bill perfectly.

Mark Day, monkey's uncle

"We sent Mark a link to watch the film, and got word that he was chuckling his way through the first half. I don't know what happened to change his opinion, but the pearl clutching is not unexpected.

"Mark's about my age, and this film is not for us elderly old timers who drink tea from a cup. The audience for High There likes their tea rolled in paper or lit in a pipe! High There won the Viewer's Choice Award from the Cannabis Film Festival -- not the Australian Press Council!

"I don't want to age myself, but to quote a song from my old friend  -- and tea-rolling mate-- Willie Dixon, 'The men don't know, but the little girls understand.' The kids understand High There.  If we got Rupert Murdoch men's approval, we'd be in trouble!"

High There DVD,
available June 23 

Day's clarification comes days after Darwen challenged Robert Downey Jr.'s treatment of journalists and denigration of independent films. “Junior was a lot more interesting when he was a substance-abusing, suffering artist — brave and silly enough to push the envelope,” Darwen told Richard Johnson of PageSix.com.  "It was the untamed spirit of the indie movement and the writings of journalists he now walks out on, that made him a name in the first place.”

High There will be released on BRINKvision DVD and On Demand on June 23rd. It's available as a pre-order on Amazon.com and other online sales sites.

CONTACT: Sam Peters

goodstoryproductions@mac.com
SAM PETERS PUBLIC RELATIONS NY LA LV LN HK

Press Release: International spotlight hits HIGH THERE and director/star Wayne Darwen

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

  

* Big week for nonfiction film in advance of official June 23rd release

* Storm over Darwen's rebuke of Robert Downey Jr.

HOLLYWOOD (MAY 22) -- Two of the world's most influential newspaper and online columnists, in two corners of the world, put the focus this week on High There director and star Wayne Darwen and his influence on today's pop culture.

Weeks before the nonfiction comedy film's official release on Richard Johnson of the New York Post's Page Six, and Mark Day of The Australian, wrote columns that were picked up by dozens of news organizations across the globe.

An international storm erupted Thursday after Johnson quoted Darwen's defense of independent filmmakers and journalists, in response to disparaging remarks by actor Robert Downey Jr.  

As Johnson noted, Darwen was the model for Downey Jr.'s newsman character in the controversial film, Natural Born Killers.

Three days earlier in Sydney, Day wrote a personal reminiscence of Darwen in Australia's only national newspaper.

He noted that his former reporter has been "described as the new Hunter S. Thompson — the new king of gonzo journalism," and that High There, which "reignites a film genre made popular decades ago by the likes of Cheech and Chong... is being hailed as a minor masterpiece."

Both columnists highlighted the triumph by Darwen and his fellow director Henry Goren earlier this month at the Cannabis Film Festival in Humboldt County, California, where High There won the Viewers' Choice Award.

The BRINKvision DVD of High There is available as a pre-order on Amazon.com and other online sales sites.

FOR INTERVIEWS, REVIEWS, PRESS MATERIALS

CONTACT: Sam Peters

goodstoryproductions@mac.com

SAM PETERS PUBLIC RELATIONS NY LA LV LN HK