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HONEYDEW
by Marco Bergonzi & Michael Petrolini

SYNOPSIS
Through the eyes of two protagonists, HONEYDEW tells the story of a small town in the throes of a dramatic and existential change due to the recent legalization of marijuana. Nestled in the hills of Northern California’s Humboldt County, Honeydew isn’t just a geographical location, it’s a state of mind. Two and a half hours away from any supermarket or police station, the original inhabitants came here in the 1970s seeking freedom in its purest form, a cohabitation with nature. They wanted no part of government, rules or regulations and based their economy on the illegal cultivation of marijuana, homegrown in the center of the Emerald Triangle, a zone famous for the best weed in the U.S. Humboldt County is synonymous to marijuana as Bordeaux or Montalcino is to wine. But now the founders, most of whom are closing in on senior citizenship, are struggling to adapt to the rapidly-changing landscape of legalized marijuana, while the younger generation instead willingly accepts the new reality, unconcerned about being trapped in a system from which their parents escaped decades earlier.
DETAILS
90 mins
2024
Italy
English

CREDITS
Directors & Authors: Michael Petrolini & Marco Bergonzi
Producers: Simone Catania & Francesca Portalupi (Indyca)
Co-Producer: Costanza Julia Bani (Fellonica Film)
Script Author: Will Geiger
Editor: Sascha Fülscher
Author & Line Producer: Francesco Cibati

BIOGRAPHY
DIRECTORS - MICHAEL PETROLINI & MARCO BERGONZI
Born in Turin, Italy in 1992, upon graduating from Liceo socio psico pedagogico, Michael enrolled as a Sociology major in Milan but later took a hiatus from his studies to work and travel. During the following five years he journeyed and worked an array of jobs in the United States, Australia, Japan, Taiwan, South East Asia and Africa. In 2017 he took classes at the Rosencrantz & Guildenstern school of cinema in Bologna, where he graduated in November 2018.
Born in Parma, Italy in 1991, Marco obtained a degree in Architecture at the PolytechnicUniversity of Milan. He returned to Parma where he completed his studies in 2018 witha multidisciplinary thesis about informal living. Through this research he came intocontact with humanistic disciplines such as anthropology and sociology. As a passionate photographer/cinematographer, and storyteller, he has dedicated the last three years to documentary cinema.
SELECT FESTIVALS
SANTA BARBARA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2025〡THESSALONIKI INTERNATIONAL DOCUMENTARY FILM FESTIVAL 2025〡FESTIVAL DEI POPOLI 2024 - THEATRICAL DISTRIBUTION AWARD
PRESS
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