Grammy® Award-winning singer-songwriter Melissa Etheridge and other “women of weed” show how legal cannabis is a movement of visionary “Puffragettes®”.

PORTLAND, OR, UNITED STATES, April 6, 2021 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Gender parity and cannabis take center stage in Mary Janes: The Women of Weed. The award-winning documentary film includes a powerful interview from Grammy^® Award-winning singer-songwriter Melissa Etheridge. The film debuts on AppleTV, GooglePlay, Vudu, and Vimeo on April 13th. Due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the filmmakers will host a Virtual Red Carpet Event for the press and fans that afternoon. The one-hour virtual event begins at 4:00 pm PT (7:00 pm ET) and consists of a Q&A with Executive Producer/Director Windy Borman and cast members.

“Women are creating businesses that instill corporate social responsibility into the foundation of the cannabis industry,” says Borman. “The film serves as a curated collection of the visionary women who founded the legal cannabis industry and their ideas are embedded into the framework we see today. It is a celebration, a time capsule, and a roadmap for where we still need to go.”

Melissa Etheridge says, “There’s so much opportunity in the cannabis industry because it has not been set up within the old world male business paradigm. Women can grow it, heal with it, and now, in America, you can make a business.”

The award-winning documentary garnered “Best Documentary” and “Visionary” awards on the festival circuit, and was featured in Variety, The Associated Press (AP), The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Huffington Post, Forbes, NBC, and ABC. Ongoing social media censorship and the coronavirus pandemic delayed its digital release until now.

“While the outside world looks different, we are still struggling with the same issues we were before the pandemic,” says Borman. “We did not magically solve the calls for gender parity, social justice, sustainability, and cannabis legalization. If anything, the pandemic has brought these issues to the forefront.”

Originally a cannabis outsider, Borman became intrigued by the cannabis industry when she learned that women represent 37% of senior leadership in cannabis. The national average is 21%, so there was something about cannabis that attracted more female entrepreneurs. She set out to answer this question by interviewing over 40 women across the United States. By looking at the intersection of gender parity, social justice, and environmental sustainability, Borman explores how cannabis is not only an industry but also a movement of dedicated and visionary women she calls “Puffragettes^®” (as in Pot + Suffragette).

Mary Janes: The Women of Weed, Borman’s third documentary, explores the movement to end marijuana prohibition, her own relationship to the plant, and the stereotypes surrounding it. Through a series of empowering and educational interviews with a broad diversity of women leading the industry today, Windy’s own assumptions are transformed as she discovers cannabis liberation intersects with the most urgent social justice issues of our time. She learns how this green revolution has big effects on environmental sustainability, ending the War on Drugs and the Prison-Industrial Complex, and the destructive domination of Big Pharma.

The film premiered at festivals amid the movements for #MeToo and Black Lives Matter, which heightened the film’s call-to-action. “Gender equality and racial justice have been two core values of the film since the beginning. As a female director, I understood my social and cultural responsibility to break the Male Gaze and show a range of women leading the cannabis industry,” says Borman. “Movements don’t move if only a few succeed. We must change the rules so they are fair for everyone.”

The cast attending the Virtual Red Carpet Event include:
Betty Aldworth
Sara Batterby
AC Braddock
Jill Brzezicki
Julianna Carella
Danielle Espinel
Sabrina Fendrick
Mara Gordon
Kiana Hughes
Jazmin Hupp
Karin Lazarus
Wy Livingston
Jaime Lewis
Laila Makled
Jacqueline McGrane
Jeanine Moss
Dr. Amanda Reiman
Lindsay Robinson
Andrea Sallis
Mitzi Vaughn
Dr. Daniela Vergara
Jane West

The Red Carpet Correspondents include:
Keiko Beatie
Lelehnia DuBois
Frances Gonzales
Leah Maurer
Samantha Montanaro
Lisa Snyder
Tiffany Watkins

Women are changing the face of today’s fastest-growing industry - cannabis. Join us as we discover how they’re also changing the world.

Qualified media outlets and writers can request a film screener via press@maryjanesfilm.com. The media can register for this event now.

Kimbirly Orr
Knock Out Performance
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MARY JANES: THE WOMEN OF WEED