The Green Flash
Atlanta, Georgia | Film Feature
Documentary, Biography
7 years ago, we set out to make a true crime film about one of the most prolific pot smugglers in U.S. history. But as we came to know Steve Lamb, our film turned into a thoughtful portrait of a man clinging to his legacy. We can't wait to share "The Green Flash," but first, we need your help.
The Green Flash
Atlanta, Georgia | Film Feature
Documentary, Biography
Green Light
This campaign raised $30,900 for festivals. Follow the filmmaker to receive future updates on this project.
186 supporters | followers
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7 years ago, we set out to make a true crime film about one of the most prolific pot smugglers in U.S. history. But as we came to know Steve Lamb, our film turned into a thoughtful portrait of a man clinging to his legacy. We can't wait to share "The Green Flash," but first, we need your help.
About The Project
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
"The Green Flash" is a documentary film by Ethan Payne, Jodi Cash, Gresham Cash, and Jake Gee. It's our first feature-length, and it tells the story of a man named Steve Lamb.
As a young man, Steve was one of the most prolific maritime marijuana smugglers in US history. Our film finds him much later in life, hobbling around his hometown of St. Pete Beach, FL, trying to sell his memoir.
Being an upstart team of 4, it's unsurprising that this film took us 7 years to make. In that time, we became close to Steve, his family, and his anomalous community. They inspired us to live adventurously, to fearlessly make something because we believed we could. It's that experience that we tried to capture in this film.
We set out to make a flashy true crime documentary about a group of young men smuggling unthinkable quantities of marijuana, but over the years, the story became much more human. It became about a man trying to make something of himself for his family. Steve's shortcomings are met with remarkable love and grace by his family members. We found their dynamics remarkable and shifted the focus of our film accordingly. We think that might be what's most effective about our film: we imagine audience members will be able to see themselves in our subjects. We hope they'll be affected by this man who became so dear to us looking back on his life and considering what gave it meaning.
Because we care to make people care about Steve, we also care to activate our audience around the theme of cannabis clemency. Steve spent 11 years of his life in prison for charges related to marijuana. He spent another 11 years in exile while evading violation of parole charges. His sentences were all appealed or reduced—had he served them in their entirety, he would have been imprisoned at least 20 years more. This pales in comparison to what many others (particularly people of color) have served, but the time Steve lost was significant—and needless.
Steve can’t get that time back, but his story could be used to help exonerate others who are still in prison. We plan to use "The Green Flash" to promote cannabis clemency.
Last Prisoner Project cites that 15.7 million people have been arrested for marijuana offenses and $47 billion dollars have been spent annually on the U.S. “War on Drugs.” Yet it’s legal recreationally in 24 states and medically in 38. As of 2022, the legal cannabis industry in the US was valued at $13.2 billion dollars. Apart from being unjust that anyone continue to languish in prison for a drug that’s increasingly legal and lucrative, marijuana charges have been especially weaponized against communities of color.
How different would Steve Lamb’s life be if marijuana were legal in 1973? How different would the US be? Could smugglers have used their skills to make a comfortable living for themselves and their families? As a documentary film, “The Green Flash” cannot answer these questions, nor does it aspire to. Instead, it humanizes these questions as Steve Lamb considers his own legacy.
"The Green Flash” also brings Steve’s story into the present, focusing on what it’s like for men like him to age. We see an ex-convict and former federal fugitive attempt to make things right as a father, friend, and grandfather. He’s no longer incarcerated, but he’s still imprisoned by addiction and physical decline. Seeing the toll this takes on his whole family offers a timely perspective to America’s evolving attitude towards drugs.
We hope to provide an impactful contribution to the conversation on cannabis clemency, and to move audiences to think deeply about how they'll be remembered and by whom. But that's only possible with your support!
After years of work, our film is finally complete. This spring, we're so thrilled and grateful to premiere at festivals throughout the country. Our next phase involves continuing to apply to festivals, seek marketing opportunities, and create collaborative events to raise money and awareness for Last Prisoner Project. We're asking for your help to get this film off of our harddrives and in front of people like you!
Your contributions will help us get through this pivotal phase: premiering "The Green Flash" at festivals and seeking distribution. We are trying to create an appealing package for distributors, which requires that we have errors and omissions insurance and that all of our materials are covered by releases. By giving to our campaign, you'll also help us with the expense of the final edit, festival applications, and marketing materials—all of which is essential to a great festival run (thus boosting our odds of finding distribution). And finally, your support will enable us to press our amazing original soundtrack on vinyl (if you contribute $250 or more, you'll get a copy of the 2 double vinyl albums!). Supporting our campaign is a profound way to help the four of us professionally, as we maximize the impact of this film and turn our eyes towards future projects.
Because we're working with our wonderful fiscal sponsors, From the Heart Productions, all contributions to this campaign are tax deductible (beyond the fair market value of the rewards you'll receive). And if you have a brand or business and would like to get more involved with the launch and marketing of this film as a sponsor, please reach out.
Regardless of whether you're able to give to our project, we're so grateful to you for taking an interest and following along.
With love,
The Green Flash Crew
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
Final Edit + DCP
Costs $10,275
Please help us cover the costs of our final edit. This includes hiring our brilliant co-editor Jake Gee and making a DCP file for festivals.
Festival Applications + Marketing
Costs $6,225
Festival applications are expensive! So is marketing our film. But this is an essential step for The Green Flash (and our careers). <3
Original Score on Vinyl
Costs $3,500
This covers mastering the original score, paying the musicians who performed on it, and printing two double-vinyl albums for you to enjoy.
Legal Fees + Errors & Omissions Insurance
Costs $5,000
We need legal counsel for rights clearance and contracts, plus Errors & Omissions insurance to mitigate legal risks and ensure distribution.
Cash Pledge
Costs $0
Direct link:
Share this update!
About This Team
We made this film as a fledgling team of 4. We met in Athens, GA some time after finishing school at the University of Georgia. Each of us brings something dynamic and different to the project.
Ethan Payne is an award-winning filmmaker, photographer, and musician. After working on big movies and TV productions in the sound department, he's gone on to make countless short documentaries, largely about Southern artists, chefs, makers, and cultural movements. Those shorts have racked up awards at festivals around the world. In 2022, his film “We Dance” played Tribeca and won awards in additional festivals. In 2021, he received the Director’s Spotlight Award for “We Travel” at the Ouray International Film Fest, as well as the Short Stories Award at the Washington DC Intl Film Festival and Best Short Documentary at the Berlin Independent Film Fest. His short “Lou” won Best Editing at the Ouray International Film Fest. In 2022, his short “Bright Morning Stars” won the Judge’s Award at Boone Docs. When he's not on set, he writes songs and tours with his band Easter Island.
Jodi Cash is a journalist whose work has been featured in The Bitter Southerner, Hidden Compass, Scalawag, Paste, Kinfolk, ArtsATL, and Georgia Health News. She co-founded The Seed & Plate, which features stories about community, largely through the lens of sustainable agriculture. In 2019, she published “Concrete Jungle: A Foraged Fruit Cookbook,” in collaboration with the Atlanta-based nonprofit of the same name. “The Green Flash” is an extension of her story, “High Times and Low Tides at Reefer Beach,” which was published on The Bitter Southerner, featuring photos by Ethan Payne. This is her first film!
Gresham Cash is an award-winning musician, composer, and writer with a background in wildlife biology. His former band Oak House was applauded by national outlets like NPR’s All Songs Considered, Daytrotter, Impose Magazine, Consequence of Sound, and Paste, and awarded Upstart of the Year in the 2015 Athens Flagpole Music Awards. He's since released three solo albums and continued to publish fiction and nonfiction writing internationally. He'll release his first album with his Barcelona-based band Ya Armando this summer. A prolific creative, he collaborates regularly with Ethan Payne and contributed the score to “Lou,” among many other shared titles.
Jake Gee wears many hats: He's a filmmaker, counselor, and father of two young boys. He's lived in Japan and traveled the world to tell stories, a lifelong love of his. Jake's made many short films, including “The Spoken Word” and “Here Say: Speaking as Performance." He’s also created video content for nonprofits, businesses, startups, and musicians. He helped us finish (and start) this film while he was completing his masters of counseling degree. Now he's based in St. Louis, MO where he's taking on his first counseling clients.
Current Team
Incentives
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
"The Green Flash" is a documentary film by Ethan Payne, Jodi Cash, Gresham Cash, and Jake Gee. It's our first feature-length, and it tells the story of a man named Steve Lamb.
As a young man, Steve was one of the most prolific maritime marijuana smugglers in US history. Our film finds him much later in life, hobbling around his hometown of St. Pete Beach, FL, trying to sell his memoir.
Being an upstart team of 4, it's unsurprising that this film took us 7 years to make. In that time, we became close to Steve, his family, and his anomalous community. They inspired us to live adventurously, to fearlessly make something because we believed we could. It's that experience that we tried to capture in this film.
We set out to make a flashy true crime documentary about a group of young men smuggling unthinkable quantities of marijuana, but over the years, the story became much more human. It became about a man trying to make something of himself for his family. Steve's shortcomings are met with remarkable love and grace by his family members. We found their dynamics remarkable and shifted the focus of our film accordingly. We think that might be what's most effective about our film: we imagine audience members will be able to see themselves in our subjects. We hope they'll be affected by this man who became so dear to us looking back on his life and considering what gave it meaning.
Because we care to make people care about Steve, we also care to activate our audience around the theme of cannabis clemency. Steve spent 11 years of his life in prison for charges related to marijuana. He spent another 11 years in exile while evading violation of parole charges. His sentences were all appealed or reduced—had he served them in their entirety, he would have been imprisoned at least 20 years more. This pales in comparison to what many others (particularly people of color) have served, but the time Steve lost was significant—and needless.
Steve can’t get that time back, but his story could be used to help exonerate others who are still in prison. We plan to use "The Green Flash" to promote cannabis clemency.
Last Prisoner Project cites that 15.7 million people have been arrested for marijuana offenses and $47 billion dollars have been spent annually on the U.S. “War on Drugs.” Yet it’s legal recreationally in 24 states and medically in 38. As of 2022, the legal cannabis industry in the US was valued at $13.2 billion dollars. Apart from being unjust that anyone continue to languish in prison for a drug that’s increasingly legal and lucrative, marijuana charges have been especially weaponized against communities of color.
How different would Steve Lamb’s life be if marijuana were legal in 1973? How different would the US be? Could smugglers have used their skills to make a comfortable living for themselves and their families? As a documentary film, “The Green Flash” cannot answer these questions, nor does it aspire to. Instead, it humanizes these questions as Steve Lamb considers his own legacy.
"The Green Flash” also brings Steve’s story into the present, focusing on what it’s like for men like him to age. We see an ex-convict and former federal fugitive attempt to make things right as a father, friend, and grandfather. He’s no longer incarcerated, but he’s still imprisoned by addiction and physical decline. Seeing the toll this takes on his whole family offers a timely perspective to America’s evolving attitude towards drugs.
We hope to provide an impactful contribution to the conversation on cannabis clemency, and to move audiences to think deeply about how they'll be remembered and by whom. But that's only possible with your support!
After years of work, our film is finally complete. This spring, we're so thrilled and grateful to premiere at festivals throughout the country. Our next phase involves continuing to apply to festivals, seek marketing opportunities, and create collaborative events to raise money and awareness for Last Prisoner Project. We're asking for your help to get this film off of our harddrives and in front of people like you!
Your contributions will help us get through this pivotal phase: premiering "The Green Flash" at festivals and seeking distribution. We are trying to create an appealing package for distributors, which requires that we have errors and omissions insurance and that all of our materials are covered by releases. By giving to our campaign, you'll also help us with the expense of the final edit, festival applications, and marketing materials—all of which is essential to a great festival run (thus boosting our odds of finding distribution). And finally, your support will enable us to press our amazing original soundtrack on vinyl (if you contribute $250 or more, you'll get a copy of the 2 double vinyl albums!). Supporting our campaign is a profound way to help the four of us professionally, as we maximize the impact of this film and turn our eyes towards future projects.
Because we're working with our wonderful fiscal sponsors, From the Heart Productions, all contributions to this campaign are tax deductible (beyond the fair market value of the rewards you'll receive). And if you have a brand or business and would like to get more involved with the launch and marketing of this film as a sponsor, please reach out.
Regardless of whether you're able to give to our project, we're so grateful to you for taking an interest and following along.
With love,
The Green Flash Crew
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
Final Edit + DCP
Costs $10,275
Please help us cover the costs of our final edit. This includes hiring our brilliant co-editor Jake Gee and making a DCP file for festivals.
Festival Applications + Marketing
Costs $6,225
Festival applications are expensive! So is marketing our film. But this is an essential step for The Green Flash (and our careers). <3
Original Score on Vinyl
Costs $3,500
This covers mastering the original score, paying the musicians who performed on it, and printing two double-vinyl albums for you to enjoy.
Legal Fees + Errors & Omissions Insurance
Costs $5,000
We need legal counsel for rights clearance and contracts, plus Errors & Omissions insurance to mitigate legal risks and ensure distribution.
Cash Pledge
Costs $0
Direct link:
Share this update!
About This Team
We made this film as a fledgling team of 4. We met in Athens, GA some time after finishing school at the University of Georgia. Each of us brings something dynamic and different to the project.
Ethan Payne is an award-winning filmmaker, photographer, and musician. After working on big movies and TV productions in the sound department, he's gone on to make countless short documentaries, largely about Southern artists, chefs, makers, and cultural movements. Those shorts have racked up awards at festivals around the world. In 2022, his film “We Dance” played Tribeca and won awards in additional festivals. In 2021, he received the Director’s Spotlight Award for “We Travel” at the Ouray International Film Fest, as well as the Short Stories Award at the Washington DC Intl Film Festival and Best Short Documentary at the Berlin Independent Film Fest. His short “Lou” won Best Editing at the Ouray International Film Fest. In 2022, his short “Bright Morning Stars” won the Judge’s Award at Boone Docs. When he's not on set, he writes songs and tours with his band Easter Island.
Jodi Cash is a journalist whose work has been featured in The Bitter Southerner, Hidden Compass, Scalawag, Paste, Kinfolk, ArtsATL, and Georgia Health News. She co-founded The Seed & Plate, which features stories about community, largely through the lens of sustainable agriculture. In 2019, she published “Concrete Jungle: A Foraged Fruit Cookbook,” in collaboration with the Atlanta-based nonprofit of the same name. “The Green Flash” is an extension of her story, “High Times and Low Tides at Reefer Beach,” which was published on The Bitter Southerner, featuring photos by Ethan Payne. This is her first film!
Gresham Cash is an award-winning musician, composer, and writer with a background in wildlife biology. His former band Oak House was applauded by national outlets like NPR’s All Songs Considered, Daytrotter, Impose Magazine, Consequence of Sound, and Paste, and awarded Upstart of the Year in the 2015 Athens Flagpole Music Awards. He's since released three solo albums and continued to publish fiction and nonfiction writing internationally. He'll release his first album with his Barcelona-based band Ya Armando this summer. A prolific creative, he collaborates regularly with Ethan Payne and contributed the score to “Lou,” among many other shared titles.
Jake Gee wears many hats: He's a filmmaker, counselor, and father of two young boys. He's lived in Japan and traveled the world to tell stories, a lifelong love of his. Jake's made many short films, including “The Spoken Word” and “Here Say: Speaking as Performance." He’s also created video content for nonprofits, businesses, startups, and musicians. He helped us finish (and start) this film while he was completing his masters of counseling degree. Now he's based in St. Louis, MO where he's taking on his first counseling clients.