Legalize It!

Johnny Araújo's 2017 Brazilian film tells the story of Planet Hemp, the band formed in Rio de Janeiro in the nineties. The meeting between Marcelo, selling t-shirts and cassettes on the street, and Skunk turns into a musical movement arguing for the legalisation of cannabis, and the members are arrested for it. The matter at the centre is not music but freedom of expression: the band was prosecuted over its lyrics, a case argued over for a long time in Brazil. The story focuses on the friendship between the two, and Skunk's early death is its emotional centre of gravity. The rapport between Renato Góes and Ícaro Silva works. The production does not step outside the biography template. Who it's for: viewers interested in the history of Brazilian music and band biographies. Who it's not for: anyone avoiding drug content, or wanting a story outside the template.