Dirty Pictures

Popular on the film festival circuit, this fine documentary with an unfortunate title serves up a profile of Alexander “Sasha” Shulgin, an idiosyncratic chemist who has developed more than 200 psychedelic compounds—most notably MDMA, better known as Ecstasy. Seen in a makeshift laboratory at his Northern California home, at various speaking engagements with his therapist wife of 40 years, and in interviews, Shulgin comes across as a preoccupied genius with thoughtful views regarding ecstatic experience in general. A number of other scientists—some former colleagues of Shulgin's, as well as a younger skeptic—weigh in on the human impulse to seek altered states, and the film also explores how psychedelic research might help to answer questions about the inner workings of the mind. Directed by Étienne Sauret, Dirty Pictures is ultimately the story of a man who inspires differing reactions: from the legions of admirers who thank Shulgin profusely for his work, to the cops who raid his home (caught on camera), to the middle-age son who is obviously ambivalent about his father's legacy. Highly recommended. Aud: C, P. (T. Keogh)