Billy Corben has been working in the dark side of underground South Florida economies since his Cocaine Cowboys series. Here, with Square Grouper: The Godfathers of Ganja, he shifts his drug of choice to something a bit more mellow. The film is a documentary of the economies as well as the personalities – on both sides of the law – responsible for marijuana distribution. Given access to a slew of subjects – some have spent more than 25 years in prison – Square Grouper is a well-made, well-rounded documentary. Told in three parts – from Coptic Farms, a Star Island import operation which had the Government of Jamaica (and it’s prime minister) in its pocket to Everglade City, where the local sheriff’s department is on the distributors’ payroll to the Black Tuna Gang, a smuggling operation center.
The title (“Square Grouper”) is a term for fishing bails of marijuana that have been thrown over board. Some have made fishing a living for what others have thrown over when the narcs were hot on their trail. The film, much like Cocaine Cowboys, is told through the use of stock footage and talking-head interviews, photographed mostly in dolly shots. Corben and company has made it a practice to employ narrative techniques in their films, a la Errol Morris.
And while this flash-bang style sometimes meets some resistance, understandably the more aesthetics deployed in a documentary is, the larger the mark of the filmmaker (of course there are exceptions the other way around, such as Frederick Wiseman). Here Corben’s style serves the film well; his subjects are effective, permitted to speak although mediated for the purposes of telling a story. The filmmaker has again found a way to allow the story to be told in an engaging and entertaining style that isn’t distracting.
While the film could be used as vehicle for understanding failed drug policy and the families the illegal enterprise destroys, it lacks the overt political agenda usually associated with polished docs of this magnitude. And while the three story structure is useful and straight forward, it distracts from the deeper story being told. It’s to South Florida without acknowledging several other important and growing operations these fisherman and seamen were competing against for market share. Perhaps the point is on the bottom rung of an economy, folks will do anything to get ahead and feed their families, while on the top the motivation is pure greed, building systems, farms and operations to better control, expand and preserve market share. The government can turn a blind eye up to a certain point.
There are several strong stories from government enforcement tactics, including the seduction of a smuggler’s wife to the fascinating story of the Coptics, which essentially made a business decision to start a new religion, The Coptic Church’s The Church of the Living Man, which insured marijuana was considered a protected sacrament – while earning a tax exemption.
The filmmakers have largely made the right choice by building the narrative around the subjects. Square Grouper is an engaging counter balance to the frantic action of Cocaine Cowboys, hitting most of the right notes with authentic voices and atmosphere.
