Geoff Bowie's Walk Naked Singing
2002 Film Looks Back on 1960s Idealism and Drug Mentality
Mar 31, 2009
Walk Naked Singing focuses on the lives of three 60s-generation friends as they spend a summer somewhere in the Ontario forest. Wayne, Frank and Gordie are tucked away under the dense trees, trying to grow a commercial crop of 100 percent Canadian marijuana.
Arenas of Pot Called ‘Rinks’
In two giant gardens, the three farmers plant their ‘rinks’. In an enormous vat, they mix their grow solution, a combination of micronutrients and organic fertilizers that the plants need during their development. They are excited to begin the endeavor.
While not the most wholesome learning material, watching the men work with cannabis does provide an educational element when it comes to botany. After watching, you'll know the difference between a male and female plant.
And the process proves to be a learning experience for the three friends as well. Arguments break out about the amount of food to give the plants and the farmers don’t always see eye to eye on the use of marijuana. This only creates extra tension as they are already on edge about being discovered by the authorities. It’s not an easy feat to hide 700 plants under massive tarps every night.
Marijuana Eradication Program
Canadian police scour the hidden nooks of the country. They are constantly searching for and finding grow ops in houses, forests and even corn fields. Wherever there is cannabis, there are authorities tracking it down.
Walk Naked Singing introduces us to political activist and long-time pot smoker, Pat Crawley. We also meet Robert ‘Rosie’ Rowbotham, pot user and dealer, who holds the Canadian record for the longest time served in prison for marijuana. Rowbotham tells his story and makes it clear he does not regret his actions. He served 19 years in jail.
It is a different time than the freewheeling 60s and Walk Naked Singing is about passed time and forgotten idealism in a world moving towards standardization.
Old friends of director Geoff Bowie, Wayne, Frank and Gordie invite the filmmaker to their hideaway, but he is blindfolded on the drive in. The farmers themselves wear bandanas over their faces throughout the film as to not be recognized. Bowie narrates their story in a quiet, almost creepy voice, but the rhyming technique he uses to describe his friends and experiences is reminiscent of the 60s free spiritedness.
Bowie, who also directed The Universal Clock: The Resistance of Peter Watkins,has been acknowledged as a rare director who documents complex human emotions.
Walk Naked Singing, Canada, 2002, 58 Minutes, Colour.
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