There are good reasons to believe that 2012 could become the year in which Wakefield Poole, one of the pioneers of (post-)porn cinema and the sexual revolution of the seventies, is celebrating another well-deserved comeback. The revival is due to filmmaker Jim Tushinski, who since 2007 has been working on a documentary about the ex-Broadway dancer and choreographer Poole, who in 1971 decided to start over and shot “Boys in the Sand”, a low-budget gay hardcore feature, which became an instant porn classic. Tushinski’s “Dirty Poole” is completely financed through private donations and according to the movie’s website and will premiere at a couple of festivals this spring. Here’s a teaser for the movie (which I liked a little more than the official trailer):
For a little taste of Poole’s work I recommend the “Clips” section on the “Dirty Poole” website, which contains remastered scenes from legendary Pooley films such as “Boys In The Sand” and the beautiful “Bijou” (see picture on top via Flickr/mixnycqueerfilm), as well as the trailer and some clips from his beautiful bible adaptation.
The dialogue-free bible film was a financial disaster at the time and didn’t really find the right audience – here’s one of the clips, a scene from the “Samson and Delilah” sequence:
Tushinski (who also made the documentary “That Man: Peter Berlin” from 2005) has also started to re-release Poole’s movies on his own film distributing company Gorilla Factory Productions. The first release is a DVD containing the two movies “Moving!” and “One, Two Three”, which he remastered in cooperation with the man himself. The bible film is supposed to follow later this year. There are also already limited remastered versions of “Boys In The Sand” and “Bijou” reserved for everyone who donates more than $50 to the “Dirty Poole” film. And for everyone who wants the whole Poole package there are also the recently re-issued memoirs of Poole, which can be ordered from the website as well.
I also found this video that was shot in conjunction with “Dirty Poole: In Conversation with Wakefield Poole,” an onstage interview and clip program, in which Tushinski talked to Poole about his work on stage. Below you also find the show’s intro, a montage of clips from Poole movies.
