{"id":391053,"date":"2026-07-29T20:35:07","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T20:35:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/391053\/"},"modified":"2026-07-29T20:35:07","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T20:35:07","slug":"naked-pool-party-a-locally-produced-gay-film-is-screening-for-free","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/391053\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Naked Pool Party,’ a locally produced gay film is screening for free"},"content":{"rendered":"

Most local short films quietly debut, find a modest, niche audience and slip away. \u201cNaked Pool Party,\u201d the new comedy short from Fort Worth\u2019s Dario Studios<\/a>, had other plans \u2014 arriving with a splash and a poolside chaise full of glorious, unbothered nudity. It has done what most local films only dream about. It sold out an entire auditorium at Studio Movie Grill, and then the larger room they scrambled to book. And now, for anyone who missed the first cannonball, it\u2019s coming back for a free encore at the leather gay bar, the Dallas Eagle, on July 30th.<\/p>\n

The movie\u2019s plot is deceptively simple. Three gay friends\u2014Frankie (Trevor VanArsdale), the fearless ringleader; Oscar (Anthony Ortega), the shy one clinging to his towel; and Chris (Jorge Oldez), freshly heartbroken and dragged along against his will\u2014decide to attend their very first naked pool party. What follows is a 31-minute plunge into comedy, chaos and a surprising amount of heart.<\/p>\n

\"\"Jorge Oldez, Trevor VanArsdale and Anthony Ortega wade into chaos as three friends testing their limits at a very unclothed pool party.<\/p>\n

Courtesy of Dario Studios<\/p>\n

Two husbands, one dry-erase board<\/p>\n

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THANK YOU!<\/p>\n

You’re all set.<\/p>\n

CLOSE\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Behind the camera stand Carlos Suarez and Jorge Jimenez, husbands and creative partners who run Dario Studios out of Fort Worth. Suarez wears roughly every hat possible \u2014 director, co-writer, producer, cinematographer and editor. while Jimenez co-writes, produces and handles makeup. Together with longtime writing partner Blake Pichon, they built \u201cNaked Pool Party\u201d the old-fashioned way: standing at a dry-erase board, mapping the arcs of three very different men until their stories balanced.<\/p>\n

The inspiration for the story came from two places. The energy and spectacle of Dallas Pride lit the initial spark. The specific premise, though, was born poolside at their friend David Moore\u2019s place in Arlington, where the husbands kept clocking the wonderfully strange cast of characters drifting through. Life, as it turns out, was already writing the script, they just added dialogue and a bit more cake. Moore, the generous host that he is, lent his home for the three-day shoot and even has a cameo as an Uber driver.<\/p>\n

Suarez directs with the patience of someone who wants options. You could lovingly compare his approach to David Fincher\u2014multiple takes, multiple angles, coverage for days. The goal is a wealth of footage to shape post-production. If that means running a scene all day until the water splashes in the light perfectly, so be it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe juice was definitely worth the squeeze on this one,\u201d Jimenez says. <\/p>\n

Andrew Begay and the art of the cathartic exit<\/p>\n

Adam, the ex-boyfriend with a tongue sharp enough to cut glass, is played by Andrew Begay. A lifelong North Texas resident, Begay stumbled onto the casting call on social media last year and decided to leap.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been on a self-evolution journey the last few years and just going for things that excite me and get me out of my comfort zone,\u201d Begay says. \u201cI did theatre a million years ago in high school, and I remember it lit a spark in me and brought me to life. Getting cast in \u2018Naked Pool Party\u2019 allowed me to get a taste of that again.\u201d<\/p>\n

The role turned out to be more than a fun credit.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlaying the role of the big bad fuckboy ex-boyfriend was more than just a lot of fun for me; it was cathartic,\u201d Begay explains. <\/p>\n

Part of his own healing has involved letting go of a relationship that wasn\u2019t good for him, which is exactly the wound Chris carries in the film. <\/p>\n

\u201cBeing on the other side of that heartbreak playing the heartbreaker felt triumphant, for I knew the character, and playing him felt like exorcising a shadow of my past,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n

\"\" On set, the cast approaches the party\u2019s point of no return. <\/p>\n

Suarez has no notes, saying Begay\u2019s acting debut was seamless, \u201cthe camera just loves him.\u201d Jimenez praised the emotional restraint Begay brought to the flashback scenes\u2014enough bite to sting, never so much that Adam curdled into a total villain.<\/p>\n

But it wasn\u2019t all fun. Every production has its near disaster. Theirs arrived on day one, when minutes before call time, the actor cast as Fernando, the bartender, backed out. Fernando wasn\u2019t a throwaway role, either. He\u2019s woven into Oscar\u2019s entire arc, which meant plan B was a quick recast or a rewrite that nobody had time to attempt.<\/p>\n

Enter Frank Lacherre, who had signed on as a background extra and happened to walk onto set that morning. With one look, Suarez knew he found his new bartender. Frank stepped in, delivered comedic timing that surprised everyone, and turned a potential catastrophe into one of the film\u2019s happy accidents. It\u2019s the kind of story that only happens when a community shows up ready to work.<\/p>\n

The tender scenes turned heads on the bridge<\/p>\n

The film isn\u2019t all skin and sass. Quick flashbacks give the friendships weight and history without stopping for exposition. Some of the most affecting shots were filmed on the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge in December. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe definitely turned some heads that day,\u201d Begay says. \u201cSome people were really invested in the scene we were bringing to life but didn\u2019t realize we were shooting a movie. Carlos did a great job stitching those shots together and creating something touching, and dare I say heartbreaking, in a movie that\u2019s mainly spicy and hilarious.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Creative partners Carlos Suarez and Jorge Jimenez bring \u201cNaked Pool Party\u201d to the red carpet after making a splash in North Texas indie film.<\/p>\n

As for the pool scenes that demanded take after take? Begay keeps his tongue firmly in cheek. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf a scene called for someone to be pushed into the pool, hypothetically speaking, of course, we\u2019d have to run the scene several times to give him options for angles, splashes, movement and just the right amount of skin. Those of us with perfectly coiffed long hair had to suck it up \u2014 hypothetically speaking, of course.\u201d<\/p>\n

The movie is resonating with the local gay community for obvious reasons. The ensemble of \u201cNaked Pool Party\u201d reflects the range of the DFW queer community: different ages, bodies, styles and histories. Nobody is left unrepresented. <\/p>\n

\u201cAs someone who was once deep in the closet, it was very special for me to work with a group of local, talented gay men and allies as we shot the film,\u201d Begay says about the weekend on set. \u201cI feel like we all just meshed so well together. Everyone was there to work and have a great time bringing the script to life. No one acted like a prima donna or dramatic \u2014 except when cameras were rolling.\u201d<\/p>\n

The film is now setting its sights on the festival circuit, with no online release planned yet. That makes local screenings your best and only shot to see it, and the Dallas Eagle is the best possible option. The encore lands at Dallas Eagle<\/a> (525 S. Riverfront Blvd.), on Thursday, July 30 at 9 p.m. It\u2019s the venue\u2019s supposed first-ever film screening, and it\u2019s completely free (21+).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Most local short films quietly debut, find a modest, niche audience and slip away. \u201cNaked Pool Party,\u201d the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":391054,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[102,104,103,64,5440,4660,1183,11702],"class_list":["post-391053","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news","tag-events","tag-first-look","tag-interviews","tag-lgbtq","tag-sex-dating"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391053","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=391053"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391053\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/391054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=391053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=391053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=391053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}