Our Story

Dirty Poole tells the story of a sometimes overlooked gay liberation and independent film making pioneer. In an era when anyone making, promoting, or appearing in what the US government considered "pornography" could be liable for prosecution and jail time, Poole was a remarkably open and honest gay filmmaker. He also became internationally famous and his movies screened for years as examples of films that could be artistic as well as sexually explicit.

Director/Producer Jim Tushinski continues the cinematic exploration of art and sexuality he began in That Man: Peter Berlin, but this time the main character is not a cool, untouchable icon. An outspoken and articulate artist  in a turbulent, passionate time, Wakefield Poole didn't think of himself as a pornographer. He was a filmmaker who used his dance and theater background to create beautiful, erotic art films that , as he put it, "challenged the mind." To many, though, Poole just made dirty movies.

Dirty Poole follows Wakefield Poole as he writes his autobiography, remembers his incredible life and attends two very different events in his honor: a heavily censored clip program at the New York Public Library in 2007 and a controversial screening of his first film, Boys in the Sand, in the Fire Island Pines in 2010.

For more information, visit our Web Site - www.dirtypoole.com

The Impact

Poole's story is one of the many forgotten pieces of important cultural history from the early days of the 1970s, when society's attitudes toward sex, gay men, and art changed forever. What makes Poole story so amazing is his continual re-invention: from ballet dancer to Broadway choreographer to influential gay filmmaker to cultural icon to drug addict to pornographer to chef to Florida retiree. His life reflects the cultural changes going on around him and brings to light the influences his work has had on generations of gay men and artists of all kinds.

What We Need & What You Get

All donations are tax-deductible thanks to fiscal sponsorship from the San Francisco Film Society.

We are in the post-production stage - the most expensive part of the documentary process. We need to raise money for clip licensing (Poole danced on many classic TV and Broadway shows in the 1960s and those clips are expensive), an original score, titles and motion graphics, color correction, and Error and Omissions insurance (very important given the amount of untraceable TV clips we'd like to use). This campaign is focused primarily on licensing some amazing dance and theater clips and archival photos from Poole's early career.

We also have great thank you gifts for donors, including exclusive remastered DVDs of Poole's classic films (not available commercially), autographed copies of his autobiography, DVDs of the finished documentary, and access to an exclusive Donors Only area of the Web site where you can see rough cuts of sequences and rare archival footage.

Other Ways You Can Help

Tell everyone! This project is primarily being funded by individual donors. We need your help!