Swamp Dogg Gets His Pool Painted

Last updated
Swamp Dogg Gets His Pool Painted
Directed byIsaac Gale
Ryan Olson
David McMurry
Written byAndrew Broder
Isaac Gale
Paul Lovelace
Ryan Olson
Produced byIsaac Gale
Paul Lovelace
David McMurry
Ryan Olson
Ben Wu
Starring Swamp Dogg
Guitar Shorty
CinematographyDavid McMurry
Ryan Thompson
Edited byPaul Lovelace
Isaac Gale
Ryan Olson
Music bySwamp Dogg
Moogstar
Ryan Olson
Alex Epton
Production
company
Poorly Painted Pools
Release date
  • March 8, 2024 (2024-03-08)(SXSW)
Running time
95 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Swamp Dogg Gets His Pool Painted is an American documentary film released in 2024. [1] Directed by Isaac Gale, Ryan Olson and David McMurry, the film profiles Jerry "Swamp Dogg" Williams, a musician who has been an influential cult figure in American music despite never achieving mainstream fame, who lives with his friends and colleagues Larry "Moogstar" Clemons and David "Guitar Shorty" Kearney in a modest home in the San Fernando Valley which the three men have maintained as an artistic haven. [2]

Contents

Guitar Shorty died during the film's production, with the aftermath of his death forming part of the film's storyline. [2]

The film premiered on March 8, 2024, at the SXSW festival. [2]

Critical response

Joe Gross of the Austin Chronicle wrote that "Gale and Olson bring a stoner energy to the proceedings, funny and a little hyper, amplifying Swamp’s stories with titles dropped into the footage and animated bits à la Mike Judge’s totally excellent series Tales From the Tour Bus . Judge pops in, in fact, as do Johnny Knoxville and voice actor Tom Kenny, mostly just to shoot the breeze with Swamp, poolside." [2]

For The Hollywood Reporter , Daniel Fienberg wrote that the film "isn’t the sort of 'important' documentary that generally wins awards, but it’s a fine example of something even rarer: a documentary that draws its voice and aesthetic from the spirit of its subject, resulting in a tight 97 minutes that feel organic and satisfying and, as befits that subject, appealingly odd." He concluded that "whether or not you know Jerry 'Swamp Dogg' Williams when the documentary begins, it’s easy to walk away feeling like this is pretty much exactly the spotlight that Swamp Dogg deserves." [1]

Awards

At the 2024 Whistler Film Festival, it won the Best Documentary Award. [3]

Related Research Articles

The Austin Film Society (AFS) is a non-profit film society based in Austin, Texas. Founded in 1985 to exhibit independent, experimental, foreign and various other non-mainstream art films, the film society has grown from just film exhibition to fostering independent filmmaking in Texas and has served as a cornerstone in building the film industry in Austin. The film society also owns and maintains Austin Studios, hosts the annual Texas Film Awards gala, and oversees the Austin Film Society grant program. The film society was founded by film director Richard Linklater, who currently serves on the board as artistic director. Other notable members on the board and advisory board include Tim McCanlies, Robert Rodriguez, Charles Burnett, Guillermo del Toro, Jonathan Demme, Mike Judge, John Sayles, Steven Soderbergh, Paul Stekler and Quentin Tarantino.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Swamp Dogg</span> American songwriter (born 1942)

Jerry Williams Jr., generally credited under the pseudonym Swamp Dogg after 1970, is an American country soul and R&B singer, musician, songwriter and record producer. Williams has been described as "one of the great cult figures of 20th century American music."

South by Southwest (SXSW) is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, Texas. It began in 1987 and has continued growing in both scope and size every year. In 2017, the conference lasted for 10 days with the interactive track lasting for five days, music for seven days, and film for nine days. There was no in-person event in 2020 and 2021 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic in Austin; in both years there was a smaller online event instead.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ondi Timoner</span> American film director

Ondi Doane Timoner is an American filmmaker and the founder and chief executive officer of Interloper Films, a production company located in Pasadena, California.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Guitar Shorty</span> American blues guitarist (1934–2022)

David William Kearney, known as Guitar Shorty, was an American blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He was known for his explosive guitar style and wild stage antics. Credited with influencing both Jimi Hendrix and Buddy Guy, Guitar Shorty recorded and toured from the 1950s until the 2020s. In 2017, Billboard magazine said, "his galvanizing guitar work defines modern, top-of-the-line blues-rock. His vocals remain as forceful as ever. Righteous shuffles...blistering, sinuous guitar solos."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bob Byington</span> American film director

Robert Byington is an American film director, screenwriter and actor living in Austin, Texas. He is most noted for his films RSO (2008), Harmony and Me (2009), Somebody Up There Likes Me (2012), winner of The Special Jury Prize at the 2012 Locarno Film Festival, 7 Chinese Brothers (2015) starring Jason Schwartzman, Olympia Dukakis and Tunde Adebimpe, Infinity Baby (2017) starring Kieran Culkin, Nick Offerman, and Martin Starr, and Lousy Carter (2023) starring David Krumholtz, Olivia Thirlby, and Starr.

<i>Downloaded</i> (film) 2013 film

Downloaded is a documentary film directed by Alex Winter about the downloading generation and the impact of filesharing on the Internet. A teaser of the film premiered at SXSW on March 14, 2012. The feature film made its world premiere at SXSW on March 10, 2013, and was shown at other film festivals around the world. VH1 partnered with AOL to distribute the film widely and was broadcast as a VH1 Rock Docs feature in late 2014.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christopher Leggett</span> American film producer

Christopher Leggett is an American producer of films, television, documentaries, music videos, and commercials. In 2013, Leggett joined as a partner at Delirio Films, a boutique film and commercial production company with a focus on prestige documentary, both features and series. Leggett began his producing career at NBC / Universal Sports. Among his most recent documentaries is Ask Dr. Ruth, about sex therapist and Holocaust survivor Dr. Ruth Westheimer, which was shown at the Sundance Film Festival in 2019.

<i>The Case Against 8</i> 2014 American film

The Case Against 8 is an American documentary film, which premiered at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival on January 18, 2014. Directed and produced by Ben Cotner and Ryan White, the film documents the legal battle to overturn California's Proposition 8, focusing in particular on behind-the-scenes footage of David Boies and Theodore Olson during the Perry v. Schwarzenegger case.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dawn Porter (filmmaker)</span> American film director

Dawn Porter is an American documentary filmmaker and founder of production company Trilogy Films. Her documentaries have screened at The Sundance Film Festival and other festivals as well as on HBO, CNN, Netflix, Hulu, PBS and elsewhere. She has made biographical documentaries about a number of historical figures including Bobby Kennedy, Vernon Jordan, and John Lewis and has collaborated with Oprah and Prince Harry.

Geoff Marslett is an American film director, writer, producer, animator and actor. His early career started with the animated short Monkey vs. Robot which was distributed internationally by Spike and Mike's Classic Festival of Animation on video and Spike and Mike's Sick and Twisted Festival of Animation in theatres. More recently he directed several successful narrative feature films including MARS, as well as producing and acting in the experimental documentary Yakona. He appears onscreen in Josephine Decker's Thou Wast Mild and Lovely which was released theatrically in 2014. He currently resides in Austin, Texas and splits his time between filmmaking and teaching at the University of Colorado at Boulder.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Luke Meyer</span> American documentary filmmaker

Luke Meyer is an American documentary filmmaker. His films include Darkon, New World Order, and Breaking a Monster. He is a founding partner of the New York-based filmmaking collective SeeThink Films.

<i>The Work</i> (film) 2017 American film

The Work is a 2017 American documentary film following three civilians on a four-day group therapy retreat with men who are incarcerated at Folsom State Prison. The film is the directorial debut of Jairus McLeary and was co-directed by Gethin Aldous. Jairus McLeary produced the film with Alice Henty and his brothers Eon McLeary and Miles McLeary.

<i>Love, Loss, and Auto-Tune</i> 2018 studio album by Swamp Dogg

Love, Loss, and Auto-Tune is a studio album by Swamp Dogg. It was released via Joyful Noise Recordings on September 7, 2018. It peaked at number 7 on the Billboard Heatseekers Albums chart, as well as number 28 on the Independent Albums chart.

<i>Boys State</i> (film) 2020 documentary film directed by Jesse Moss and Amanda McBaine

Boys State is a 2020 American documentary film directed and produced by Jesse Moss and Amanda McBaine. It follows a thousand teenage boys attending Boys State in Texas, coming to build a representative government from the ground up.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Denis Semionov</span> Russian artist

Denis Semionov - is a Russian new media artist.

<i>Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street</i> 2021 American documentary film

Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street is a 2021 American documentary film directed by Marilyn Agrelo. Based on the non-fiction book Street Gang by Michael Davis, the film chronicles the development and airing of the children's television program Sesame Street, featuring interviews with series creators Joan Ganz Cooney and Lloyd Morrisett, as well as writers, actors, and artists involved in its creation.

What We Leave Behind is a 2022 documentary film directed by Iliana Sosa. The film is a portrait of Sosa's grandfather, Julián Moreno, as he starts building a house in the Mexican state of Durango. As a younger man, Julián had spent decades living between the United States and Mexico, first working as a bracero and later traveling by bus to visit his children and grandchildren in the Southwestern United States. In the film, Julián revisits this past with his granddaughter as the two forge a tighter bond together. Voiceovers from the director punctuate the film and pair with imagery of the local landscape; the soundtrack features an a cappella song by the Cardencheros de Sapioriz, who are also from Durango.

<i>We Feed People</i> 2022 documentary film by Ron Howard

We Feed People is a 2022 American documentary film directed by Ron Howard that chronicles how chef José Andrés and his nonprofit World Central Kitchen (WCK) rebuild nations in the wake of disaster, providing food to those affected. It had its world premiere in Austin, Texas, at the SXSW Film Festival and was released on March 19, 2022, in the U.S. and in Canada on May 19, 2022, by National Geographic Documentary Films. The film received critical acclaim and was nominated for two Primetime Emmy Awards at the 74th Emmy Awards.

<i>We Can Be Heroes</i> (2024 film) 2024 American film

We Can Be Heroes is a 2024 American documentary film directed by Carina Mia Wong and Alex Simmons. The film follows kids at a live action role-playing summer camp in upstate New York. It premiered at the 2024 SXSW Film Festival, where it won a special jury award “for bravery and empathy.”

References