In 2015, Jodi Cash, an Athens-based journalist writing for The Bitter Southerner magazine, met Steve Lamb, a 62-year-old man peddling his memoir at shops along the boardwalk of St. Pete Beach, Florida.
His memoir, which he had co-written with a professional author and published with a small-print press called Sirena, was titled “The Smuggler’s Ghost: When Marijuana Turned a Florida Teen Into a Millionaire Fugitive.”
The book, aptly named, told the tale of Lamb and the Steinhatchee Seven, a group boys in their teens and early 20s who, because of their nautical expertise aboard fishing boats, had been lured into smuggling “square grouper” (floating blocks of marijuana) off the Gulf Coast of Florida in the 1970s.
Their involvement eventually landed them all in federal prison. Decades later, after serving their sentences, some of the Steinhatchee Seven, including Lamb, could be found back in sunny St. Pete Beach.
“Even outlaws have to grow old,” Cash wrote in her 2016 feature article in The Bitter Southerner, which was the springboard for the documentary “The Green Flash,” screening in Atlanta on Saturday. “And today, the same boys who grew up on the beach, raising hell and breaking rules, still call the place home. Here, they live with their ghosts, get high on memories and search for purpose in the long twilight of a life spent at sea.”
Credit: Courtesy of 'The Green Flash'
Credit: Courtesy of 'The Green Flash'
When Cash unraveled Lamb’s story, and those of other key figures in his narrative — including Charlie Fuss, the dogged investigator for The National Narcotics Border Interdiction System board who helped bust Lamb — she knew she had something to write. While working on the long-form magazine article, she invited a friend, photographer Ethan Payne, to accompany her and take pictures.
The published piece was a glossy spread with Cash’s carefully crafted words and Payne’s documentary-style photography. But Cash and Payne weren’t satiated by its completion. They both felt the story could be even bigger and better told on film.
The film idea was ambitious. They had no studio backing. They were self-funded.
Cash had no experience creating film. Payne had never attempted a feature-length documentary. But the two took a leap of faith and started road-tripping down the west coast of Florida on weekends to capture footage.
Credit: Courtesy of Jodi Cash
Credit: Courtesy of Jodi Cash
At first, they intended to tell the true-crime story of the Steinhatchee Seven, but quickly realized the scope was unruly. Then, they “fell in love with Steve,” Cash remembers.
“He was the one that had the most enthusiasm for the project,” she said. “He was the most charismatic, the most fun. … He had childlike wonder for the world and for the adventures he had lived. And his love for his family.”
Cash and Payne pivoted to the more focused, personal story of Lamb. They spent nine weekends filming.
“We were pulling at threads of the story with each trip down,” Cash said. “… It was an evolution of us following Steve’s own reflection on his life. … Steve was starting to physically decline. … The film also became very much about aging … as he was assessing his own legacy and what his relationships meant.”
Credit: Courtesy of "The Green Flash"
Credit: Courtesy of "The Green Flash"
To heighten the emotional resonance, Cash recruited her husband, professional musician Gresham Cash, to compose the score. Filmmaker Jake Gee came on board as director of photography. Jason Sheedy, an executive producer at Atlanta-based Bark Bark Productions, colored the footage.
Shortly after the team finished the film, just as they were ready to launch it at festivals in February of last year, Lamb died. His death made the film’s premiere two months later even more poignant.
Since then, “The Green Flash” has screened at independent film festivals including the Ouray International Film Festival in Colorado, the Saint Augustine Film Festival in Florida and the Swedish International Film Festival.
This month, the film will screen in Georgia, showing in Athens on Thursday and Atlanta on Saturday. It will return again to the Tara Theatre in Atlanta on Oct. 21.
Because Payne recently moved to Fort Lauderdale, and Cash is living abroad in Paris, the duo is even more excited to screen their film in Georgia, where they both grew up as creatives.
August’s screenings will include a live musical performance of parts of the score played by Gresham Cash and feature a post film Q&A.
Partial proceeds from the film will benefit the film’s nonprofit partner, The Last Prisoner Project, which focuses on cannabis clemency.
Lamb turned 21 in prison and spent 11 years of his young life in prison on marijuana charges. He would have spent an additional 20 years behind bars had some of his sentences not been appealed or reduced.
“While we definitely understand there’s a big difference between people who are serving hellish prison terms for having a baggie of weed on them … and (the Steinhatchee Seven) … when you ask the question of what anyone is doing in prison for marijuana, that’s the parallel we’re drawing,” Cash explained.
The film itself, however, does not weigh itself down with the politics of marijuana reform. Rather, it’s a personal reflection of a man whose teenage adventures at sea, fishing for square grouper, altered his life forever.
IF YOU GO
“The Green Flash.” 5 p.m. Thursday at Ciné, 234 W. Hancock Ave., Athens; 6 p.m. Saturday at Wild Heaven West End Brewery & Gardens, 1010 White St. SW, Atlanta; and 7 p.m. Oct. 21 at Tara Theatre, 2345 Cheshire Bridge Road NE, Atlanta. Ticket prices vary by venue but range between $14-$27. thegreenflashdocumentary.com.
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