The Shulgin documentary (Dirty Pictures)
In an interview director Etienne Sauret talks about the relationship he built up with the Shulgins during the 5 years he spent with them to film the ‘Dirty Pictures’ documentary. From the interview, what Sauret led to making this documentary:
In 2005 a friend who runs a drug prevention center in the UK wanted to bring Sasha to London to speak at a conference. When Sasha couldn’t attend, we went to California and made a short film for the conference. While filming, I found Sasha and his wife Ann to be truly unusual and endearing. Later, when I was editing the footage, my office interns kept stopping by and asking “who IS this guy?” I never thought Sasha, a wild man with white hair, big white eyebrows and a child-like smile would be so appealing to people in their 20’s, and I thought that if Sasha could stop them in their tracks and hold their attention, making a longer film about both Ann and Sasha was worth pursuing. I soon began to realize that there was a lot more to the story that I initially imagined.
The film premiered at the SXSW Music and Media Conference in Austin, USA and is already receiving good reviews (1 2 3) online. There are currently screenings throughout the US, more (European) screenings are planned. A DVD release date has not been set as of yet.
For the trailer and an exclusive Q and A with Sasha and Ann Shulgin, see the youtube channel of Dirty Pictures.
