'Dirty Pictures' Shulgin doc at SXSW

Festival darling and documentary filmmaker Etienne Sauret came to discover the subject of his latest documentary through complete happenstance. While filming Dr. Alexander 'Sasha' Shulgin - one of the rogue chemists who discovered the effects of Ecstasy at a routine press conference, Sauret became fascinated with Shulgin, the man.

"Dirty Pictures" is a documentary about Dr. Alexander 'Sasha' Shulgin. Shulgin’s alchemy has earned him the title 'The Godfather of Psychedelics,' and a reputation as one of the great chemists of the 20th century. Working from a lab in his home, and using himself and his wife Ann as test subjects, Shulgin's discoveries have brought him into conflict with the law but made him a worldwide underground hero. The two books Sasha and Ann co-authored, 'Pihkal' and 'Tihkal', have built a foundation for cutting-edge neuroscience and medical research. "Dirty Pictures" examines the impact of Dr. Shulgin’s lifelong quest to unlock the complexities of the human mind.

From an interview snippet with director Sauret:

SXSW prides itself on its 'Tomorrow Happens Here' attitude, as does its audience. That’s the perfect place for a film like this to debut, because Dr. Shulgin was very much a frontier person who went out and did the psychedelics research that nobody else was daring to do. He decided to forgo convention, walk away from a lucrative corporate job and go out on his own to fulfill his destiny, and I think that the audience will very much be able to appreciate his Man Against the Machine attitude.