The Blueberry Farmer
The Blueberry Farmer
The story begins in a former moonshine holler in the hills of Tennessee, a place called Trace View Farm. This the story of Bernie Ellis, told as only he can tell it. Nashville press once called him "Tennessee's favorite felon." He has endeared himself to hundreds of people in his community over the years that have come to know and love him. When he asked people he knew to step forward and write a letter on his behalf for his court case, hundreds did so including the owner of the local town diner and the county sheriff.Bernie was bush hogging a pasture in 2002 when he noticed a helicopter circling above him. When it lowered to just over the tree tops in a tight circle, he knew his life was about to change forever. Trace View farm was raided by the police that day and about 90 cannabis plants were confiscated as evidence by federal officers. For almost 15 years, Bernie had been growing medical marijuana. Besides using it himself for his own ailments, including degenerative spine and fibromyalgia, he was delivering it for free to terminal AIDS and Cancer patients that he knew.Turns out, Bernie knew a lot of them. He worked, before his arrest, for Vanderbilt and then the CDC, setting up Tennessee's AIDS program during the height of the epidemic. He knew a lot of people that were dying and suffering and he also knew pot could help them.He went from earning over $100,000 per year in his field to living on food stamps unable to find work with an arrest record.Through it all, Bernie stayed sober after battling his addiction to alcohol and instead of giving up, he reinvented himself as an organic blueberry farmer. As you enjoy a meal at many of Nashville's fine dining establishments today, Bernie's blueberries are probably on the dessert menu.This Documentary is about how he saved his farm, his life and how he continues to fight for social justice and the legalization of medical cannabis to this day.