Graham Nash Releases Animated ‘Dirty Little Secret’ Short Film

Graham Nash has premiered an animated short film titled Dirty Little Secret, directed by New York-based filmmaker, animator, and painter Jeff Scher.

Inspired by Nash’s 2002 song of the same name, Dirty Little Secret depicts the 1921 Tulsa massacre and race riot using a photorealistic visual style reminiscent of Twenties silent films.

Nash says: “[Session drummer] Russ Kunkel and I knew that this story was a ‘Dirty Little Secret,’ so we wrote the song 19 years ago about the mass killing of at least 300 people and the destruction of Black Wall Street in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1921.”

Nash felt the need to revisit the song after former President Donald Trump scheduled a campaign rally in Tulsa on the anniversary of the massacre last June. Having previously worked with Scher on the 2018 animated video for the Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young track “Teach Your Children,” he called the animator up again to produce the short film.

The film had its official premiere at the 2021 Tribeca Film Festival as part of an animated short program curated by Whoopi Goldberg and will be screened at numerous additional film festivals, including France’s Annecy Festival and Australia’s Melbourne Film Festival. It’s currently screening at the Tulsa Juneteenth Festival, running June 17th through 20th.