Friday evening at Speed Cinema, the Louisville audience will get the chance to see “Swamp Dog Gets His Pool Painted.” This documentary follows the career and relationships of musician, artist Jerry Williams, who performs as Swamp Dogg.
The film begins with Williams discussing the repainting of his backyard pool with a painter. Soon after, we begin to meet the characters of Williams’ colorful life, beginning with Guitar Shorty, who lived with Williams for nearly 20 years, including through many of the years of Williams’ marriage to his wife Yvonne.
Williams is a man that musicians know and the rest of us may have heard rumors about. He produced artists like Patti LaBelle, Irma Thomas, and Z.Z. Hill and participated in the making of over 2000 songs and 500 albums, with 26 of his own. He’s worked with artists like John Prine, Dr. Dre, Jane Fonda, and so many others.
The film presents the story of a man who has lived the life of a legend despite rarely reaping the success that he was perhaps due.
This documentary is like Sun Ra’s “Space is the Place” but for the aging Boomer. Unstoppable creativity and a willingness to try anything once, “Swamp Dogg Gets His Pool Painted” is a touching journey through not only the creative world of Williams but those closest to him, including Guitar Shorty, and resident extraterrestrial lifeform, Moogstar aka Larry Clemon, both of whom lived with Williams.
It is a refreshing look at the ways communal living can provide support, community, and mutual care, particularly for aging Black men, including the ways that men can lean upon each other through struggles with mental health, including depression and anxiety, which all the men mentioned as personal barriers.
The documentary comes at an important time as political wranglings in the United States shift the way we relate in our communities. It also offers a window for aging Boomers, who have entered their final years, and as the wildly self-sufficient Gen X eyes its own aging, it offers a roadmap. The film takes us on a journey of care, race, family, and community. Williams is surrounded by community, including the painter we meet at the beginning of the movie. If audiences take little else away, this is something imperative.
See “Swamp Dogg Gets his Pool Painted” both Friday, May 16, and Saturday, May 17 at Speed Cinema, playing at 7 p.m. each evening. Tickets are available online at speedmuseum.org/cinema. $12/$8 for members.
