A&E
Penny Lane weighs in on her film, NUTS!, presented at F.I.L.M.
By Ghada Emish ’19
September 29, 2016
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F.I.L.M.’s second screening this semester was NUTS!—an intellectually stimulating documentary that questions the validity of easily believing figures of popular culture and history. NUTS! is the creative vision of film director Penny Lane, assistant professor of art and art history at Colgate University, who introduced the film last Sunday, Sept. 25 at Hamilton. The film has been shown in 60 countries over the summer and was screened at many film festivals, including Sundance Film Festival. Lane is also the director of Our Nixon, another innovative documentary released in 2013.
NUTS! starts with the sweeping success of Dr. John Romulus Brinkley in Milford, Kansas as a genius who not only introduced surgical implantation of goat testicles as a cure to impotence, but also succeeded in developing the world’s most wide-spanning radio station, with a transmission of one million watts. Brinkley, a self-made man, faced the persistent attempts of the authorities to condemn him. He was almost a heroic figure to many Americans in the film.
However, this perspective is turned on its head when it becomes clear that it has been adapted from a fictitious biography called The Life of A Man: Biography of John R. Brinkley produced by Brinkley’s own company. To the American people, this revelation leads to a tragic collapse of Brinkley’s business. Even his middle name turns out to not have been Romulus, but Richard. Apparently, Brinkley wanted to associate himself with a pioneering historic icon in order to increase his appeal to people (a fact that Lane told the audience herself). Everything Brinkley did primarily served his motives to gain more publicity and, thus, profit.
NUTS! takes a human turn at the end by featuring an original radio speech which Brinkley addressed to his son Jonny. Brinkley was an impostor clever to a fearful extent, but this does not change his having been a father and husband. This being a final sequence of NUTS! implies the inevitability of emancipation from historical condemnation of any Brinkleys out there.
The choice of featuring 55 out of 120 minutes of animation served more than one purpose in NUTS! It took Lane two years to do research on the core information in the film and her research yielded more text than video material. Much of the text had to be converted into moving picture. Animation is less costly, which helped keep the budget of the film in an acceptable range. Also, animation is a great source of entertainment and sarcasm in this film, all which maintains the interest of the audience throughout NUTS!
Part of producing a documentary is “making a promise to tell the truth,” said Lane. This explains why she views the entertainment factor in NUTS! as crucial, because the film makes an intentional deception in its first half that would leave viewers who quit watching the film midway completely misguided. The ability of NUTS! to deceive the audience, according to Lane, makes her film “a commentary on non-fictional storytelling,” and their ability to tell the same stories in various perspectives based on their use of available material.
Above all, the use of animation allowed great flexibility in and meticulous characterization of the different perspectives that Lane expressed in NUTS! Seven artists created the animation in the film. Each artist brings to life the chapter that employed their artistic abilities in a way that was truest to the represented perspective.
The name of this film, too, is quite clever. NUTS! is a double entendre on the source of Dr. Brinkley’s fame being the use of goat testicles to cure impotence, as well as the undeniable fact that this fame was ridiculously crazy.
Lane worked on her film for eight years. According to her, the most difficult part was searching for funds, yet she did not allow herself to be let down by the people who were not interested in the idea of her film. Her conscientiousness and strong belief in the value her artwork adds to the world are undoubtedly her greatest strengths and most inspiring qualities as a filmmaker.
NUTS! expresses the American infatuation with making self-made individuals prominent figures of popular culture and history—an infatuation that needs to be based on a more legitimate assessment of credibility. Lane establishes that brilliance and innovation should not necessarily be synonymous with credibility or legitimacy. Through her ability to deceive the audience in the first half of the film, Lane encourages them to be more astute in their reception of media productions and the owners of media agencies.