Episode 101
LA Black Cigar Culture | Smoke Big Documentary | Kareem Fort | Box Press Ep. 101
Cigars are the equalizer that bring people together. Lord knows we need more of that right now. Smoke Big, created by Kareem Fort, is an independent film about the Black cigar culture in LA. Kareem captures short stories about cigar experiences to shine a realistic light on cigars in the Black community.
Two of Boveda's founders, CEO Sean Knutsen and SVP Tim Swail were interviewed for the film. They explain how to protect the flavor and character of cigars by storing them at the proper humidity level with Boveda.
Watch the Smoke Big Documentary Trailer here: https://www.smokebigfilm.com/
What is Boveda? Cigar makers protect the flavor and character of their hand-rolled cigars with Boveda, that brown 2-way humidity pack that you find in a cigar box. At home, continue to use Boveda in your humidor to keep cigars well-humidified or they can be hard to light, burn to too fast or get moldy. With Boveda in your humidor, you'll enjoy full flavor from every cigar. Boveda has been keeping cigars tasting great for more than 25 years. Age and store premium cigars with Boveda in your humidor.
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00:00 Don't risk your cigars
00:30 Box Press intro
00:44 Introducing Kareem Fort, creative director of Smoke Big, a cigar documentary
01:23 People think LA doesn't have a cigar culture
02:05 Documentary educates cigars novices and focuses on the West Coast people behind cigars
03:28 LA premiere of cigar documentary: August 30, 2023
03:58 Future showings of cigar doc at cigar lounges across the country
04:32 Started off by creating Beyond the Smoke, web series of cigar conversations
05:39 The first cigar film to address cigars and the Black culture
08:03 Boveda amplifies other people's passions, like cigars
08:35 Boveda is in Smoke Big cigar documentary
Transcript
(upbeat music)
Speaker:(gentle music)
Speaker:- There's a story inside every smoke shop
Speaker:with every cigar and with every person.
Speaker:Come be a part of the cigar lifestyle at Boveda.
Speaker:This is "Box Press."
Speaker:- I have the privilege of welcoming Kareem Fort
Speaker:into our Boveda podcast videotaping session
Speaker:at PCA. - Okay, yeah.
Speaker:- Thanks for coming.
Speaker:- Thank you for having me, I appreciate it.
Speaker:- Yeah, so I wanna get right to the documentary,
Speaker:and then we can digress into other things.
Speaker:- Okay.
Speaker:- But tell me about "Smoke Big,"
Speaker:and tell me about the passion behind the project?
Speaker:- Oh, "Smoke Big," it's a documentary
Speaker:primarily about LA cigar culture.
Speaker:A lot of people that are from LA
Speaker:or have visited LA for extended amount of time,
Speaker:they say that LA really doesn't have
Speaker:much of a cigar culture, but I'm looking to change
Speaker:that narrative a bit with this film.
Speaker:And you know, on the outside looking in,
Speaker:it's a film about cigars, right?
Speaker:But I decided to take a different approach
Speaker:to this filmmaking process
Speaker:in terms of I wanted to focus more
Speaker:on the people behind the cigars
Speaker:than the cigars themselves, right?
Speaker:Because, you know, cigars,
Speaker:it's a wrapper, it's a binder, it's a filler, right?
Speaker:And everybody has their own formula
Speaker:and how they wanna formulate that
Speaker:to create certain, you know, flavor profiles, et cetera.
Speaker:But I didn't find that too much entertaining, so to speak,
Speaker:even though I do touch on that, and I do educate,
Speaker:you know, the viewer on the cigars, and the basics,
Speaker:for the novices, so to speak.
Speaker:But I wanted to focus on the people behind the cigars,
Speaker:I think that is where the entertainment lies.
Speaker:And actually a lot of value came from that
Speaker:because if I'm sitting around in a cigar lounge,
Speaker:I don't necessarily know who I might be sitting next to,
Speaker:you really don't know.
Speaker:But during that hour, maybe hour and 15 minutes or so
Speaker:that cigar really does act like an equalizer.
Speaker:So more times than not,
Speaker:you end up in these conversations, right?
Speaker:And you learn, at least,
Speaker:I'm always in a position of learning,
Speaker:and learning about somebody's way of life,
Speaker:or what they do for a living,
Speaker:or they might end up giving you some type of advice
Speaker:on whatever it is.
Speaker:And I said, "That's the film,
Speaker:"that's what I wanted to focus on."
Speaker:- Yeah, that interaction that happens over a cigar
Speaker:that's unlike anything else you ever experienced.
Speaker:- Yeah, because obviously, we know that
Speaker:you can't rush a cigar, right?
Speaker:- Right. - You wanna sit there,
Speaker:you want to enjoy it, and hopefully-
Speaker:- It's hard to be stressed out when you're having a cigar.
Speaker:- 100%, right?
Speaker:And hopefully you have some decent conversation
Speaker:while you're doing that.
Speaker:And I found myself in that position quite a bit.
Speaker:So I said, "That's what the premise
Speaker:of this film's about," yeah.
Speaker:- So this is your first PCA,
Speaker:your release date on the documentary.
Speaker:- Yeah. - What's the release?
Speaker:- Well, we're doing an LA premiere,
Speaker:a world premiere in LA August 30.
Speaker:- August 30? - Yes.
Speaker:So you're getting close.
Speaker:- Yeah.
Speaker:- Yeah, are you excited?
Speaker:- Yeah, I'm really excited.
Speaker:- So the documentary's in the can, it's ready to go.
Speaker:- Yeah.
Speaker:- It's been through all the editing, all the.
Speaker:- Yep.
Speaker:- And the stories that you get to tell,
Speaker:are all in the can.
Speaker:- All in the can.
Speaker:- Ready to go. - Yeah.
Speaker:- So you're gonna have this world premiere, LA premiere.
Speaker:And then what do you plan on doing with it after that?
Speaker:- Well, after that, we're looking to tour,
Speaker:so we're probably, there's several places
Speaker:around the country that have reached out,
Speaker:cigar lounge owners says, "Hey, you know what?
Speaker:"Let's do an event here at my lounge,
Speaker:"we'd love to have something like this here."
Speaker:- It'd be a great experience for this crowd
Speaker:to be able to take in the documentary.
Speaker:- Yeah, that's something I'm also looking into
Speaker:for next year, for sure.
Speaker:- Yeah, that's great. - Oh yeah, oh, yeah.
Speaker:- And if we can help connect you with any of the people
Speaker:that are involved in this event, we'd love to help.
Speaker:- Well, I would love the help, actually.
Speaker:- So how did you get into this?
Speaker:Where was the inspiration for your, the angle?
Speaker:- Sure. - Where did you come up
Speaker:with your angle?
Speaker:- Well, I started off as doing a YouTube channel,
Speaker:or a show that I invented called "Beyond the Smoke."
Speaker:And I was having conversations
Speaker:similar to the conversation that we're having now,
Speaker:just over a cigar.
Speaker:And my videographer at the time,
Speaker:and now is my editor, my right hand person, Anthony,
Speaker:he was like, "You know what, these are great,
Speaker:"what you're doing is great."
Speaker:And he had known that I had done
Speaker:another documentary prior to,
Speaker:and he says, "This is bigger than just these interviews."
Speaker:- Right.
Speaker:- "Let's figure out something else,"
Speaker:and I knew what he was hinting at,
Speaker:but because I do independent films,
Speaker:the process isn't always great.
Speaker:So I had a lot of bad vibes
Speaker:from the first time I did my first film,
Speaker:so I didn't really wanna step into it again.
Speaker:But he and I spoke and he said, "You know what?
Speaker:"I can guarantee that the process this time around
Speaker:"would be much better, and you have something special here."
Speaker:So I sat on it for maybe a month just thinking about it,
Speaker:looking at the space, look what isn't there, right?
Speaker:And what I could offer in terms of filmmaking.
Speaker:And I discovered that there isn't a lot
Speaker:of cigar-related films out there, period.
Speaker:- Right. - I mean, my guys
Speaker:did Hand Rolled, I'll be meeting with them some,
Speaker:I know they're around here somewhere.
Speaker:But other than that, I didn't see anything,
Speaker:especially focusing on Black cigar culture, right?
Speaker:Because we smoke a lot of cigars.
Speaker:- Right.
Speaker:- But you don't see it represented in a way
Speaker:that I feel is really valuable to this business.
Speaker:So I said, "Well, there's a space here."
Speaker:And I said, "Well, I got a camera, let's go."
Speaker:And that's what we did.
Speaker:- There's a great,
Speaker:have you had a chance to meet Karl Malone, the Mailman?
Speaker:- I haven't.
Speaker:- Okay, so he just walked by a few minutes ago.
Speaker:- Okay.
Speaker:- And he's been a friend of Boveda,
Speaker:and I would love to introduce you,
Speaker:he's over at Aurora. - Okay.
Speaker:- He's got a new release coming out.
Speaker:- Okay.
Speaker:- That would be a great relationship.
Speaker:- I would love to meet Karl.
Speaker:- And he is just a big hearted,
Speaker:interested and interesting guy.
Speaker:I mean, he's really good at sharing the story
Speaker:about what his passion is behind cigars.
Speaker:So I mean, that would be a great
Speaker:match for you. - I would love to meet
Speaker:Karl Malone, that's awesome.
Speaker:- It sounds like what you're talking about
Speaker:is a collection of short stories about cigar experience,
Speaker:cigar relationships.
Speaker:- Absolutely, because everything that we do
Speaker:even in this business is relationship-driven, right?
Speaker:You have to establish certain relationships,
Speaker:it's very important.
Speaker:A lot of people will do business with you
Speaker:just based on the fact that they like you,
Speaker:or they want to genuinely see you succeed.
Speaker:I've ran into that several times
Speaker:because one thing that people don't necessarily know
Speaker:that I haven't really disclosed,
Speaker:and I'll disclose it here to you,
Speaker:is that I didn't have a budget to do this film,
Speaker:but what I did have was relationships.
Speaker:I had certain resources that were available to me,
Speaker:and it's taken me quite a way.
Speaker:- Well, when Nate mentioned it to me,
Speaker:I did some homework on you.
Speaker:And you've put together quite a group of people
Speaker:that you credit with the success of getting this,
Speaker:taking it from idea to manifestation,
Speaker:so it takes a team.
Speaker:- Yeah.
Speaker:- You put together a group of people.
Speaker:I think it'd be great if we could find a way
Speaker:to be involved in that premiere.
Speaker:- I would love for you guys to be involved in that premiere,
Speaker:even if it's from a standpoint
Speaker:of putting the word out, you know?
Speaker:- Yeah, Boveda it is an asterisk on the industry,
Speaker:we're not the main event,
Speaker:that's why this is so enjoyable for us
Speaker:is because we're about amplifying other people's stories.
Speaker:- Oh that's awesome.
Speaker:- So we were talking to Carlito [Fuente] yesterday,
Speaker:and Rocky [Patel] today about different things,
Speaker:and there's a real sense of...
Speaker:Our role in this industry
Speaker:is to magnify other people's passions.
Speaker:- Okay.
Speaker:- And around these cigar stories,
Speaker:I mean, it just seems to be a really nice fit for us.
Speaker:- Man, I think it would be amazing.
Speaker:I mean, not only do I have Tim [Swail] and Sean [Knutsen]
Speaker:in the film,
Speaker:and they give some really good advice, you know?
Speaker:Obviously I wasn't able to meet them in person,
Speaker:I still haven't met Tim or Sean.
Speaker:- We'll, they're here, we'll get you connected with them.
Speaker:- Okay cool.
Speaker:So I interviewed them maybe almost two years ago,
Speaker:and my guy, Jay [Fifield], I need to meet Jay as well.
Speaker:- Yeah, I got it.
Speaker:- (chuckles) I need to meet Jay,
Speaker:like I said, I'm trying to meet everybody.
Speaker:- This is good, we're doing a lot,
Speaker:it's like a Make-a-Wish thing.
Speaker:(Kareem laughing)
Speaker:We're gonna meet Jay and we're gonna meet Sean and Tim,
Speaker:the founders of the company, good job.
Speaker:- Jay, who I met, connected me to the brand, right?
Speaker:And he understood what I was trying to do,
Speaker:and he reached out to Tim and Sean, and they were,
Speaker:"Hey, yeah, would definitely love to tell our story."
Speaker:So I was able to interview them
Speaker:over a speakerphone, you know what I mean?
Speaker:So that was just a great conversation,
Speaker:and they lended a lot of advice
Speaker:I think people would find valuable.
Speaker:And this in the film, I can't wait for you to see it.
Speaker:- Oh, that's fun. - Yeah.
Speaker:- Well, we'll definitely get you connected,
Speaker:this is another little thing,
Speaker:we can take care of that right after we're done.
Speaker:- Okay.
Speaker:- What can people do?
Speaker:How would our viewers connect with the documentary?
Speaker:Is there a website to click to.
Speaker:- Yeah, right now my website is smokebigfilm.com,
Speaker:that's being presented by NYA,
Speaker:and my producers, Sisters Of The Leaf,
Speaker:and all that good stuff.
Speaker:And follow me on IG, for sure, @SmokeBigDoc,
Speaker:and really just spread the word,
Speaker:I believe in power and numbers.
Speaker:- Oh, yeah.
Speaker:- You know what I mean?
Speaker:So if Boveda says, "Hey, you guys should check this out,"
Speaker:a lot of people would tend to make that decision
Speaker:based on the brand that you guys built.
Speaker:- Well, Boveda would like to announce to the world
Speaker:that this is the place to be, "The Smoke Big doc."
Speaker:- Yes, August 30 - Gotta check it out.
Speaker:- August 30, yes. August 30,
Speaker:premiering in Los Angeles, the world premiere.
Speaker:- Yeah.
Speaker:- Congratulations, it's a big deal
Speaker:to have a dream like that- - Thank you.
Speaker:- Come to fruition. - Yes, yes.
Speaker:It really is amazing, I'm grateful.
Speaker:I'm grateful for it all.
Speaker:- Awesome. - Yes.
Speaker:- Thanks for taking the time.
Speaker:- All right, thank you, sir. - Appreciate it.
