Swamp Dogg Gets His Pool Painted

Swamp Dogg Gets His Pool Painted is a 2024 American documentary film^[3] 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.^[4]

Swamp Dogg Gets His Pool Painted
Film poster
Directed by	Isaac Gale Ryan Olson David McMurry
Written by	Andrew Broder Isaac Gale Paul Lovelace Ryan Olson
Produced by	Isaac Gale Paul Lovelace David McMurry Ryan Olson Ben Wu
Starring	Swamp Dogg Guitar Shorty Moogstar
Cinematography	David McMurry Ryan Thompson
Edited by	Paul Lovelace Isaac Gale Ryan Olson
Music by	Swamp Dogg Moogstar Ryan Olson Alex Epton
Production company	Poorly Painted Pools
Distributed by	Magnolia Pictures
Release dates	March 8, 2024 (2024-03-08) (SXSW) May 2, 2025 (2025-05-02) (United States)
Running time	95 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Box office	$51,047[1][2]

Guitar Shorty died during the film's production, with the aftermath of his death forming part of the film's storyline.^[4]

The film premiered on March 8, 2024, at the SXSW festival, and was given a theatrical release in the United States on May 2, 2025, by Magnolia Pictures.^[4][5]

Reception

Critical response

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 100% of 23 critics' reviews are positive.^[6] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 71 out of 100, based on five critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.^[7]

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."^[4]

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."^[3]

Awards

At the 2024 Whistler Film Festival, it won the Best Documentary Award.^[8]