
“Tere Bin Laden” (2010) is a Bollywood comedy written and directed by Abhishek Sharma. Pakistani pop star Ali Zafar stars as Ali Hassan, a TV reporter for a low budget news station in Karachi. Determined to find success in America despite previously being deported after being mistaken for a terrorist, he hatches a plan to raise funds for a fake ID with a sensational video using Noora (Pradhuman Singh), a dimwitted chicken farmer who happens to be a convincing Bin Laden lookalike. The plan rapidly spins out of control when it gets the attention of US government officials and the Pakistani intelligence agency. Though some gags dependent on regional references and wordplay may be lost on western audiences, much of it is broad enough to transcend cultures (especially bits mocking the paranoid and xenophobic post 9/11 milieu). Not surprisingly, the film was banned upon release in the US and several countries in the Middle East including Pakistan. The sequel Tere Bin Laden: Dead or Alive was released last February.



The Hemp Revolution (1995) covers the history, cultivation and usage of hemp including food, fuel, building material and medicine. It also explores some of the factors behind the prohibition of hemp production in the U.S. in 1938 (including pressure from the petro-chemical industry). The impressive roster of interview subjects featured in the film includes such notable figures as Dr. Andrew Weil, Dr. Lester Grinspoon, Terence McKenna, Peter Dale Scott, and Prof. Sheri Tonn among many others.