Kevin Booth

Kevin Booth
Born	October 2, 1961 Connecticut, United States

Kevin Booth is an American film and video director, producer, and musician. He is best known for his work with comedian Bill Hicks, who was the subject of his book Agent of Evolution, published by Harper Collins UK. Hicks and Booth knew each other since their time together at Stratford High School. Booth founded Sacred Cow Productions in 1986, and has since explored such controversial subjects as the Waco Siege and the New World Order. The company's most notable release is American Drug War: The Last White Hope, which explores the failings of America's War on Drugs. The company's most recent film is "How Weed Won the West", which was released in 2010.

Early life

At age six while living in Los Angeles, Booth started his first band Freak Out 'N' Four. He was heavily influenced by his older brother Curt who suffered from schizophrenia.

Booth's family moved to Houston in the early 1970s during Houston's economic boom. In 1975, he met Bill Hicks and Dwight Slade at Stratford High School. The trio formed Stress, an early punk rock band. After high school, Booth started Year Zero, with classmates Brent Ballard and Robert Reilly.

Production career

Booth started out in the music business in the late 80s, when his band Year Zero signed a major contract with Chrysalis Records. The band toured for several years with the single "Hourglass" playing in regular rotation on MTV. While living in Texas, Booth went on to produce several records, music videos, and short films. Today, many people know Booth from his work with the late comedian Hicks.

In 1982, Booth started the ACE Production Company (Absolute Creative Entertainment) with Hicks, which would become Sacred Cow Productions later in the decade. When Year Zero broke up in 1989, Booth continued working with drummer Pat Brown and formed Marble Head Johnson, fronted by Hicks and accompanied by Booth's brother Curt on key-boards. On July 17, 1989, Booth and Hicks set out to produce Hicks' first feature-length stand-up concert film Sane Man. Booth, Hicks and friends also acted in and produced the cult classic: Karate Rock Opera Ninja Bachelor Party that took almost ten years to complete. Booth produced Hicks' second CD Relentless and performed music with Hicks on Arizona Bay. After Hicks' untimely death from pancreatic cancer in 1994, Booth produced Rant in E Minor, which was to be Hicks' angriest and final work.

In the late 90s, Booth developed his filmmaking in a more political direction and produced several films with filmmaker and 9/11 conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. Booth and Jones traveled to the 2004 Republican National Convention in New York City, where the two were threatened with arrest multiple times and created the film Martial Law with cameraman Ted O'Brian. During this time, Booth kept producing feature length stand-up comedy DVDs of Joe Rogan (Fear Factor and News Radio), and comedian Doug Stanhope. In May 2004, Booth traveled to Britain to promote his first book Agent of Evolution about his life with Hicks, published by Harper Collins U.K.

Following Hicks' death and the loss of several family members to alcohol, cigarettes and pharmaceuticals, Booth decided to produce a feature length documentary exploring America's failed drug war. The discovery that the government classifies marijuana as being more dangerous than crack or crystal meth was the start of a four-year mission to sort the facts from fiction and pick apart the paradoxes of America's longest-running "war". This led to unexpected associations with characters like Bloods founder T. Rodgers and Freeway Ricky Ross, the man blamed for starting the crack epidemic with cocaine supplied by the CIA.

The film American Drug War - The Last White Hope has won three consecutive awards for "Best Feature Length Documentary." In late spring of 2007, Booth signed with Page Ostrow of Ostrow & Company who secured American Drug War a deal with the Showtime cable network (CBS). In November 2007, American Drug War was honored at the 2007 [Artivist] Awards Ceremony as the Best Feature Film in the International Human Rights category.

American Drug War is Booth's debut as a narrator and the first of a series of films. Booth's next film How Weed Won The West was released on DVD February 17, 2010.

Booth is currently filming American Drug War 2.

External links

• KevinBooth.com - Official site
• SacredCow.com - Official site
• Kevin Booth at the Internet Movie Database
• American Drug War - Film site