Film Movement to Release A LIFE IN DIRTY MOVIES, 11/25
A love story about legendary sexploitation director Joe Sarno, "the Ingmar Bergman of 42nd Street," and his loyal wife and collaborator Peggy, A LIFE IN DIRTY MOVIES follows the Sarnos for a year as 88-year old Joe struggles to get a new film project off the ground - a female-centric softcore film that harkens back to the style of his heyday as a filmmaker in the 1960s. As audiences tag along for the eventful and often hilarious journey between wintery Manhattan and the couple's summer retreat in Sweden, the film's intimate perspective reveals a filmmaker on the verge of being rediscovered in his golden years.
Intercut is a look back to the evolution of softcore films seen as racy in their day into unmistakable hardcore porn that all but put Sarno and his artform out of business, including conversations with the likes of filmmaker John Waters, porn star Jamie Gillis and film historian Michael Bowen. The film chronicles Sarno's significant place in film history as an erotic "auteur," whose ambitions as a filmmaker often surpassed the needs of the genre he helped define.
