The Cannaman Movie: screen debut for Fife animator’s debut film

Conor Macleod is a facilities assistant at the newly re-opened venue, and will see his own work, The Cannaman Movie, screened on Thursday, October 12.

It will be the first time the 15-certificate movie has been seen in public after ten months of work drawing and animating every single scene, voicing the characters and creating the soundtrack.

Conor, originally from Leven but now stays in Cupar, hopes the screening will help to showcase Fife’s creative industry. Tickets info here.

The Cannaman Movie grew out of short animations on his YouTube channel, and will introduce the audience his cannabis-themed superhero with a rabbit sidekick.

Cannaman believes his nightmares are trying to tell him something whereas Donnay simply believes a holiday is needed to relieve stress. This leads the unlikely pair to an island where Cannaman previously worked on a secret formula which – after an attempted assassination from Big Pharma – seeped into the skin and fur of Cannaman and Donnay, providing Cannaman a supercharged endocannabinoid system and changing Donnay from a standard lab test subject into an attitude filled, joint smoking rabbit who swears almost constantly.

Cannabis is central to the film, but Conor says it is anything but a ‘stoner’ film.

“It is a cannabis story but goes much deeper than that,” said Conor. “There is no consumption whatsoever other than the opening scene - this isn’t Cheech and Chong movie. The plan is for the series to run for years. This one took ten months to draw all the scenes, animate and do voice overs. That rather counters the theory that cannabis makes you lazy.

“The characters do have non-existent powers, but it is also about their transformation as a person,. There are layers within the film - I’d love people to see it two or three times and still find new information through it”

Every scene in the film was hand drawn by Conor with pen and pencil, and it runs for 55 minutes. So far it has had very exclusive audience.

“I have only shown the film to one friend and she cracked up at the humour which was brilliant,” said Conor. “It will be fantastic to see it on the cinema screen; a real feeling of joy. There are lots of people travelling from afar to see it, and I have got some sponsors backing it which is brilliant. I’m really excited to see people networking and talking about it for the first time.”

Conor was self taught and originally created comic books for his young son. That then led into graphic novels and animation.

His YouTube channel has over 1200 subscribers while podcasts have started to reach a wider audience. The original Cannaman series had 14 chapters - he still has three to animate - and his ambition is to create a series that reaches the heights of The Simpsons in terms of longevity, and quality.

Getting his work on to the screen at the Adam Smith came via a job interview with OnFife.

“My care home maintenance job position ended, and when I went for interview at the theatre and told them about Cannaman and my creative background, they were extremely excited, and it went from there.

“I worked on the ’Welcome Back’ animation for the venue - now I can’t wait to see my film on the screen.”