''Hemp for Victory'' is a

black-and-white Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white to produce a range of achromatic brightnesses of grey. It is also known as greyscale in technical settings. Media The history of various visual media began with black and white, ...

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

government film made during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

and released in 1942, explaining the uses of

hemp Hemp, or industrial hemp, is a plant in the botanical class of ''Cannabis sativa'' cultivars grown specifically for industrial and consumable use. It can be used to make a wide range of products. Along with bamboo, hemp is among the fastest ...

, encouraging farmers to grow as much as possible. During World War II, the

Marihuana Tax Act of 1937 The Marihuana Tax Act of 1937, , was a United States Act that placed a tax on the sale of Cannabis (drug), cannabis. The H.R. 6385 act was drafted by Harry Anslinger and introduced by Rep. Robert L. Doughton of North Carolina, on April 14, 1937. ...

was lifted briefly to allow for hemp fiber production to create ropes for the U.S. Navy but after the war marijuana reverted to its de facto illegal status.

History

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 A rope is a group of yarns, Plying, plies, fibres, or strands that are plying, twisted or braided together into a larger and stronger form. Ropes have high tensile strength and can be used for dragging and lifting. Rope is thicker and stronger ...

cloth Textile is an umbrella term that includes various fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, filaments, threads, and different types of fabric. At first, the word "textiles" only referred to woven fabrics. However, weaving is n ...

, 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 The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is an executive department of the United States federal government that aims to meet the needs of commercial farming and livestock food production, promotes agricultural trade and producti ...

library and the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...

told all interested parties that no such movie was made by the USDA or any branch of the U.S. government. Two

VHS VHS (Video Home System) is a discontinued standard for consumer-level analog video recording on tape cassettes, introduced in 1976 by JVC. It was the dominant home video format throughout the tape media period of the 1980s and 1990s. Ma ...

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 Oregon Marijuana Initiative. The film is now available in numerous locations on the Internet. Hemp For Victory National Archives Copy 1990

Hemp For Victory National Archives Copy 1990

In July 1989, Jack Herer together with

Chris Wright Christopher Allen Wright (born January 15, 1965) is an American government official, engineer, and businessman serving as the 17th United States Secretary of Energy, United States secretary of energy since 2025. Before his appointment, he was th ...

, 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, John Birrenbach, recovered a copy of the film from the National Archives. The film consists of two sections; the first section being 6 minutes and 46 seconds long, and the second being 7 minutes 16 seconds long. Together, the 15 minute film detailed the cultivation of hemp for fiber. This was the first recovery of the film from a government source. This film can now be downloaded from the National Archives. ''Hemp for Victory'' was produced by the US Department of Agriculture, and contained scenes from the 1926 silent film '' Old Ironsides''. It is

public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no Exclusive exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly Waiver, waived, or may be inapplicable. Because no one holds ...

and is freely available for download from the

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...

. The film, as well as clips shown, was referenced to in an episode of '' 10 Things You Don't Know About'' on marijuana and its history.

Book

''Hemp for Victory'' is also the title of a book about hemp, published 2006 in London by Whitaker Press (). It is the work of several authors active in the hemp world, including Kenyon Gibson, Nick and Cindy Mackintosh, Woody Harrelson, Mina Hegaard and Sam Heslop.

Sequel

In 2006, efforts were made to make a sequel of the film, ''Hemp For Victory II: The Sequel'' by the UK-based production house Necessary Productions. Starring

David Hayman David Hayman (born 9 February 1948) is a Scottish film, television and stage actor and director from Glasgow. His acting credits include '' Sid and Nancy'' (1986), '' Hope and Glory'' (1987), '' Rob Roy'' (1995), '' The Jackal'' (1997), '' Tri ...

, Howard Marks and Jack Herer, the funds for post production were not raised and the project was shelved. It was then developed as a three film series of 60 minutes each. The second part released at the 2009 Seattle HempFest had Steve Levine and Andrea Hermann on the speaker panel. The movie did not have a full official release. It was released as a 2012 remake at select locations. The conceptualisation of the film was based on inputs from

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums, Education center, education and Research institute, research centers, created by the Federal government of the United States, U.S. government "for the increase a ...

Greenpeace Greenpeace is an independent global campaigning network, founded in Canada in 1971 by a group of Environmental movement, environmental activists. Greenpeace states its goal is to "ensure the ability of the Earth to nurture life in all its biod ...

, MardiGrass, Robert West, Dr Tapan Kumar Pradhan,

Howard Marks Dennis Howard Marks (13 August 1945 – 10 April 2016) was a Welsh drug smuggler and author who achieved notoriety as an international Cannabis (drug), cannabis smuggler through high-profile court cases. At his peak he claimed to have been sm ...

, Vote Hemp, John Hobson (Hemcore),

Hilary Benn Hilary James Wedgwood Benn (born 26 November 1953) is a British politician who has served as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland since 2024. A member of the Labour Party, he has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Leeds South, formerly ...

, Marc Deeley and other research institutes.

Gallery

Image:Producer_of_marihuana.jpg, Tax stamp for a producer of hemp Image:Hemp farm.jpg, Hemp farm

References

External links