VICE Does America (2016) s01e02 Episode Script

1 Saeed: You want to name you want to name the thing right now? - You guys name it.
- What's the first name that comes to mind, besides your own name? - Cindy.
- Cindy.
- [Chuckles.]
- [Claps hands.]
[Chuckling.]
This is Cindy, our RV.
How you feel about the name Cindy for the van? Oh, I'm with it.
Cindy's cool.
She looks like a Cindy, kind of old and haggard.
- You know? Smells like smoke.
- See, I think [Laughs.]
Smells like smoke? All right, good shit.
Let's hop in Cindy and get out of here.
[Rock music plays.]
My name's Abdullah.
I work at Vice as a writer and reporter.
- Aah! - I'm traveling from L.
A.
to D.
C.
with my two coworkers, Wilbert and Martina.
As the country gears up for the most polarized election in our lifetime, we're zigzagging across America meeting people [Screams.]
Saeed: and exploring the issues they care about, until we reach our ultimate destination - Hey.
- the White House.
[Cheers and applause.]
We're on our way to Denver, Colorado, to learn about the politics of weed legalization, but first, we're visiting a movie set where they're making a film with some relevant political themes.
They're actually making a film of the adult variety a porno that features Donald Trump.
The thing about Donald Trump is even if you put him on blast and you get him to say crazy shit.
that actually is better for him.
Because Americans like crazy motherfuckers.
[Laughter.]
- [Door closes.]
- De Alba: Is everything locked? Yeah.
I think we're all good.
- Okay.
- All right, let's do it.
- How's it going? - Hi.
It's nice to meet you.
You know, I worship the ground you guys walk on? - Martina.
- I love Vice.
- Martina, hi.
- Ah, thanks.
I'm sure I've seen some of your stuff, too.
Hey, maybe, right? Saeed: Where are we right now? We're on a rented location for Dogfart Productions.
And Dogfart Productions is The kings of interracial porn.
[Funky hip-hop music plays.]
Man: Look at the camera and say, "You're fired.
" You're fired.
[Laughs.]
Watson: We're about to see a parody.
Donald Trump has made some disparaging remarks about women, specifically what he said in that Megyn Kelly/Donald Trump, uh, back and forth.
You've called women you don't like "fat pigs," "dogs," "slobs," and "disgusting animals.
" The big problem is being politically correct.
And honestly, Megyn, if you don't like it, I'm sorry.
Hi.
I'm Megyn.
The Donald wants to meet me in the green room after our next debate.
I say, bring it on.
I see porn as sort of forwarding the fight of free speech.
Can you tell me like, what does free speech mean to you? Free speech means a lot to me because there's a lot of places in the world where I could never do this.
In fact, a lot of places in the world where, right now, an army can come in and arrest us all and execute us for what we're doing today.
So maybe we're the poster child for freedom of speech by what we do.
All right, what are you boys doing here? Did you come over the border illegally? Yeah, we just ran up from Mexico.
- Yeah, we just ran over that - You did? - Yeah.
- God it, this is why I need the wall.
That was pretty good.
[Claps hands.]
All right.
Let's get to fucking.
[Chuckles.]
Quiet on set.
And Today, we're gonna be talking to this gal, Megyn Kelly.
His misogynistic comments can't get to me.
After my boys get finished with her, hoo-hoo.
What I'm gathering about what we're about to see, some of that stuff kind of is offensive to me, in terms of the way that black men are going to be portrayed and because it perpetuates these sort of negative stereotypes.
But I'm happy that you're able to have the power and the right to do it.
I've portrayed black men from everything from lawyers to to street thugs.
And unfortunately, I'm going to be honest with you, the that comes out of fans' mouths never ceases to amaze me.
"Why aren't we dropping the n-word more?" "Why aren't we doing this?" "Why doesn't that.
bitch get choked out?" "Knock that whore up.
" It's all stuff that I read every day.
The people that consume this content, are they blacks or are they whites? The majority of Dogfart's customer base are white.
And for everybody that hates what I'm doing, there's other people that love it.
I get both ends of the spectrum.
Can I ask you what are the biggest challenges of being a porn star? I would just think the biggest challenge is navigating your way through a very highly racist business, as this is.
This business is extremely racist.
- Yeah, so - Can you talk about that, too? - Yeah.
- Now, say for instance, there's an Asian woman that comes into this industry.
If she work with a white guy or a Spanish guy from Spain, that's not considered interracial.
You're only interracial when you do a black guy in this industry.
- Really? - That's the only So when you see the tag "interracial porn," that always means a black guy.
That only means you fuck a black dude.
- That's how racist this shit is.
- It's like black people are here - and all the others - Everybody else is okay.
And then, one other thing is, people don't know this, either, they charge more money when you do a black guy.
Do you guys get paid more to fuck white women? [Light laughter.]
No.
We don't.
[Groovy music plays.]
Watson: Okay, Wilbert, Abdullah, I'm gonna need you guys on the strobes.
Okay.
Gotcha.
Martina, I'm gonna need you with lube.
You're gonna be the lube girl, okay? - [Laughs.]
- Sounds great.
Always have your silver deal pointing at the subject.
Okay.
Okay, gotcha.
Silver deal pointing at the subject, whoever they're fucking, okay? Perfect.
[Camera shutter clicks.]
Good.
Just move around, Cherie.
[Camera shutter clicks.]
This is our water-based lube.
What's the difference? Why? - It's a silicone base.
It's silicone.
- Deville: Feel it.
You can feel it.
Here.
Very different.
Give me a little give me your finger.
Deville: I have one more, 'cause I hate both of them.
You don't like either one of those two? - No, I think they're horrible.
- So you've got your own lube.
- See this? A lot of times - Ah, this is easier so I won't get confused.
A lot of times, talent come to set with their own lube.
That's great.
This is just coconut oil.
- And it's coconut oil.
- Ah, that's good, that's good.
- Okay.
- Try some coconut oil.
Try some coconut oil.
It's good.
It helps you not get infections or bacteria in your vagina.
Man: What do you have in your hand? I have, uh, coconut oil.
It's good for the vagina, apparently.
Tell me dos and don'ts, tell me cool and not cool.
- Are you slut, whore, cunt - Everything verbal's fine.
- Verbal's fine.
- Yeah.
- Pulling hair? - Fine.
- Choking? - Fine.
- Spitting on you? - That's fine.
You're cool with all that stuff? The only thing I'm not doing today is anal.
No.
Yeah, of course.
Have you been an actress before this, or only in porn or mainstream? Um, just adult.
No, I actually Uh, I have my doctorate in physical therapy - Oh! - so this is like a funsy second career for me.
And what made you switch from one career to the other? Well, I haven't switched.
I do both simultaneously.
Um, you know, I feel like both are really joyful expressions of myself in different ways, you know, the mental and the physical, so I enjoy both.
Yeah, that's great.
Coming from the professional world, as a woman in physical therapy, I actually feel like I have, in a lot of ways, more power in this field.
Women in porn really have all of the power.
We have all of the choice, - we made double the money than the men do.
- Yeah.
We have yes lists of select group of guys that we're willing to work with.
And the men just have to, especially when they're starting, just have to deal with whatever's thrown at them or they won't be in the business.
Watson: Let's do this.
I need everything juiced up.
I need pictures ready to go.
Abdullah and Wilbert, come on, dude.
I need I need my PAs on set.
This is pretty crazy.
Rico, Prince, step up to the plate.
Here we go.
Give me that, big eyes, Megyn.
Here we go.
Big eyes.
Rico, Prince, step up to the plate.
Here we go.
Give me that nice insertion right there.
Open that tushy up for me, honey.
That's good.
Just move around, Cherie.
She's super into it.
She doesn't get distracted.
There's so many people watching.
And it seems like, for them, nothing is happening.
Give me a couple more, Rico.
Relax.
It's okay, dude.
Take a couple seconds for Rico.
Yo, Matt, Jim's actually saying that we're freaking Rico out a little bit, so we should get out of here.
- Thank you so much, guys.
- Thank you so much.
Sorry to kill the vibe.
We're out of here now.
I'm gonna take a cookie.
Watson: [Speaking indistinctly.]
We'll go right back to where we were.
That was awesome.
It was very good.
The craft services on a porn set are actually pretty decent.
[Speaking indistinctly.]
I'm gonna grab another cookie.
[Gate scraping.]
De Alba: At the end, the whole scene made me feel a little bit uncomfortable.
Most of the people in the set were men.
And that got me thinking, too.
Like, it was, like, a lot of man energy in that set.
That was pretty fucking crazy, huh? Yeah.
We were total boner killers.
[Laughter.]
Cooper: As someone who's an advocate for freedom of speech, I think it's awesome that they're able to do what they what they want to do.
But to me, a more appropriate parody of Donald Trump, and sort of like, sticking it to him for the racist and, you know, sexist things that he said is to have like, a woman put a strap-on dildo and fuck Donald Trump in the ass.
Like, that would be a subversion with porn of Donald Trump, not having two black men fuck Megyn Kelly.
[Engine starts.]
Falling dreams like falling leaves Saeed: We're heading east through Navajo Nation on the Utah/Arizona border.
On our way to Denver, Colorado, to smoke some legal weed.
- Is that a hitchhiker? - Yo, let's pick him up.
- Should we pick him up? - Yo, let's pick up the hitchhiker.
- See if he's down.
- Yeah, fuck, right.
Hey, what's up? You don't got to run, man.
- Take your time.
- Take your time.
It's hot.
All right.
- What's your name? - Roy.
Abdullah.
This is Martina here.
Did you meet Roy? Hi.
Nice to meet you.
Begay: Hi.
Nice to meet you.
Likewise.
And this is Wilbert.
What's up, man? Pleasure to meet you.
And so, yeah, but you don't have your own car right now? - It's in the shop.
I'm building my own.
- Ah.
I'd rather build something than try and pay on something.
- You know? Common sense.
- Yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
No, that's dope, man.
Uh, how long - So, are you Navajo? - Yes.
Navajo.
- And you grew up on the reservation? - Yeah.
Yeah, my clan is [Speaking Navajo.]
.
That's who I am as a Native American.
So that's that's who I am.
You mentioned you're building your own car.
Do you know, I mean, you probably know - how to check oil on a car, right? - Yeah.
So we actually don't know how to do it on this thing, but at some point, maybe when we drop you off, if you could help us check the oil on this thing, - that would be super-helpful.
- Yeah.
Okay.
Fantastic.
So, you know, the election is going on right now.
People are starting to get ready to vote for the next president.
I was wondering, like, since you live on a Navajo reservation, like, who is a candidate currently that represents the interests of the Navajo people the best? What I'm really hoping for is, one of these days, you know, a Native American will be up there, too, you know? But how would you guys feel about it? If there was a Native American president? - Yeah.
- I'd be into that.
- Oh, I would be totally into that.
- Yeah.
I think that's the next wave, man.
What do you think are some of the things that American people need to understand about being Native American in America today? See, I go out West Coast, East Coast, the thing they always ask me is, do we still live in teepees? Do we wear moccasins? You see me wearing that stuff, you know? As a Native American, you got to learn how to survive, I mean, especially when you come from a broken home, welfare and all that.
I mean, your mom wasn't home for a whole month, you know.
I mean, hauling wood, there ain't no running water, especially winter, cold.
Down here in Shiprock, 85% of that place is People do methamphetamine.
Is meth, like, a bigger problem for Native Americans than alcohol, even, or ? - Ah, worse than alcohol.
- Yeah? Yeah, right now, methamphetamine is like, pretty much destroying Shiprock.
Part of life, you know? Saeed: There we go.
Okay, you need 3 1/2 quarts of oil.
- We need some oil? - Yeah.
Where you was going? That way? You guys not gonna make it.
Oh, no kidding.
So we're lucky we caught it right now? All right, well, we'd better go get some oil.
So 10-30, 3-1/2 quarts? - Just put it in there.
- Right.
- Thank you so much.
- Roy, great to meet you.
You saved us from being stranded, man.
- I appreciate it, brother.
- Take care of yourself, brother.
Saeed: Good luck, man.
Take care.
Have fun.
Cooper: Yo, let's think about this for a second.
We're lucky as We were about to break down when we met this dude who gave us knowledge to save our trip.
Karma.
- Wow.
- All right, let's go get some oil.
- Let's do it.
- Let's get back on the road.
Saeed: Martina, what are we doing? We're gonna get some oil for our RV, because we're about to crash it.
[Laughs.]
Cooper: Why don't we Wikipedia this Yeah, yeah.
You want to look it up? - Oil change for dummies.
- Can you try popping that open? Oh, this thing? Shit.
- Shit's hot as fuck.
- Man, this shit is hot.
It's hot as a motherfucker, man.
How did he - How did his fingers touch this shit? - I don't know.
Maybe this thing can maybe - Ooh shit.
Is it hot as - Yeah, it's hot.
All right.
[Cap clicking.]
Oh, shit.
Oh, shit.
What the fuck do we do with this, man? Okay, so we got our new oil cap here.
So we just dump it in? This is how much oil we really are missing? 3 1/2.
Yeah.
So, 3 of these and half of one.
- That's crazy.
- Yeah.
Good thing we met Roy.
- Full.
Look at that.
- Nice.
All right, we're good to go.
Let's roll.
Saeed: Before heading north to Denver, we couldn't resist camping out at this epic symbol of the American southwest Monument Valley.
[Wind howling.]
[Bird caws.]
Breathe in that morning air.
[Chuckles.]
Looks like we made a new friend.
Hey.
What's up, buddy? Look out for rattlesnakes and scorpions.
- What? No.
- Yeah, that's what I heard.
- Wow.
- Really quite majestic.
- Yeah.
- [Chuckles.]
Cooper: I mean, I have to say that America's fucking beautiful.
You know, in my mind, coming from Cleveland, when I think of beauty and greatness and majesty, I think of things that men create.
This is a different kind of beauty.
It really puts it in perspective.
We're very, very small.
All the stupid things that we fight over and that we argue about, and we talk about they're sort of miniscule in comparison to thousands of years of rivers cutting through earth and then drying up.
It defies all the things that we create, that we socially construct.
So when I say, like, America is way more beautiful than I thought, I'm really saying the world is more beautiful and more incredible than I thought.
Cooper: I'm looking forward to Denver to, like I'm interested to see, like, what the weed culture is like now with legalization and just like, it coming from the underground to this next level.
[Mid-tempo electronic music plays.]
Saeed: For years as a journalist, I've specialized in cannabis policy and culture.
And Colorado was the first state to legalize recreational weed.
It's one of the best examples of state sovereignty affecting the national agenda.
And a fun fact I am the first person of color to buy legal weed in America.
I was the 51st person, but because we were in Denver, every single one of the 50 people before me was white.
[Wilbert laughs.]
Saeed: I usually come here five or six times a year, but this'll be Wilbert and Martina's first time, so our first stop is my buddy's state-of-the-art grow house.
- What's up, man? - Abdullah, how are you? - Not bad, dude.
Good to see ya.
- Good to see you, as well.
- Been a while.
- Yeah, man.
- Let's go look at some strains.
- Let's check it out.
So this is actually the one of the older grows in Colorado that's been regulated.
These are all the licenses that are required just in a single facility - Wow.
- uh, for what we're doing.
Sweet.
Can we see some weed? You bet.
[Laughter.]
- Yes.
Now this - Oh, wow.
this is weed porn right here.
Look at all those little hairs on there.
Beautiful.
Ah, man.
Look at these plump, crystally buds.
Fantastic.
Khalatbari: So we'll usually have about 12 strains in each room.
- Yeah.
- We try not to get too many strains in a room because they grow better when they're next to their, you know - Homies? - Yeah.
[Laughter.]
This is one of my favorite-smelling flowers.
Give it a little whiff.
That's crazy.
[Chuckles.]
Smells good, huh? - Oh, man.
- Yeah.
- It's true.
It does, yeah.
- Right? [Chuckles.]
I'm really excited that these guys are getting to see something that's become so ordinary to me, because through their eyes, I'm seeing it for the first time.
I actually I'm impressed.
I'm impressed.
I really like it.
It's very beautiful.
I usually don't give a fuck about weed, but this is really nice and I think I'm getting high just being here.
So Kayvan, a bunch of states have legalized cannabis for recreational use, but only Colorado has really become a robust economy within that.
What makes Colorado so special that this could happen here? It's worked because we've done it slow and we've engaged everybody.
This is the only state I know that said, "Okay, we're gonna create these state regs.
Let's bring everybody that has anything to do with this, every stakeholder, to the table, whether that be a concerned parent, a patient, law enforcement, politicians, business owners.
Let's sit 'em around a table and let's discuss every little thing that we're gonna try to implement as a rule, and let's figure out the best way to do that.
" Now, how come Colorado did that and nowhere else did? Denver's a blue island in a sea of red, but even our red is very libertarian.
It's very, you know, "Don't tread on me.
" We're still the West, you know, this is still very much a cowboy state.
And even if people don't agree with cannabis being legal, they don't want to stop other people from consuming it, as long as it's not affecting them.
Right now, Colorado's weed industry has flourished because the federal government has decided to leave it alone, and yet, you know, you and other people who cultivate cannabis here actually are looking forward to a time when it's federally legal, even though that'll invite a bunch more scrutiny.
Why would you want to deal with, uh, you know, the federal government, as opposed to just the state government? When everybody has to abide by OSHA and FDA and USDA, that makes a level playing field, that rises consistency, that rises safety, and it lowers price.
Beyond all that, when you legalize federally, yeah, you deal with those issues, but you also don't throw 800,000 people in jail every year for using a drug that's a lot safer than alcohol, tobacco, McDonald's.
I mean, take a look at what's happened here in Denver in the last, uh, 18 months since legalization.
We've seen traffic fatalities go down, we've seen domestic violence and violence overall go down.
We've seen teen use go down three years in a row.
And we've seen taxes go up to the point to where we've collected so much in Colorado that we're gonna be giving it back to taxpayers this fall.
We're seeing an industry being created.
Well, smells like progress.
[Both chuckle.]
Saeed: One of Kayvan's most popular products is cannabis concentrate, so we went over to his house to get a taste of one of the driving forces behind this economic boom.
Cooper: I saw a video, I think, with Abdullah doing it once and I was like, "What the fuck is that, you know?" That's some crazy shit.
So, yeah, whereas, uh, you know, a flower product bud is gonna top out at 25 percent or a little higher THC, a butane concentrate will test anywhere from 70s to the 90s percent THC.
You know, that much concentrate could potentially be equivalent to smoking a whole bowl by yourself.
Get in there, Will.
All right, so, first time doing a dab.
You know, I told myself at the beginning of this trip that I would try different things and put myself out there to get the most of the experience.
- Good job.
- There you go.
Perfect.
Martina's first dab.
She's a lightweight.
Now I can say I smoked wax or whatever the fuck it is.
Don't need to do it again.
- Will? - No.
You look so stoned right now.
[Laughter.]
Everybody here is super-high.
That's why Wilbert looks like that [Laughs.]
and that's why Martina's laughing like that, that's why I'm talking like this.
Tomorrow, we're gonna go to Mount Rushmore.
- How does that sound? - That sounds amazing.
Yeah, yeah.
You like it, huh? Which four presidents are on Mount Rushmore? I don't know.
George Washington's probably got to be on there.
Probably.
Lincoln? Yes.
Without a top hat.
Roose Teddy Roo Teddy Roosevelt? [Chuckling.]
Is Ted is Teddy Roosevelt one of 'em? And then, like It was, like - [Laughing.]
- Carson? J Johnny Carson? [Laughing.]
Was he president? [Laughter.]
Cooper: When I look at some of these guys, I automatically think "slave owners," but also, there are certain ideas and concepts that they brought to the table that I can appreciate and take stuff away from.
Man: This is the last stand for the Great Sioux Nation.
You guys don't feel more anger about this.
If you look at how old the universe is, we're not even here for the blink of an eye, and it's up to us to develop as much good as we can for our blink.