Falling in Love at PornFilmFestival Berlin

I first heard about writer/director/producer/editor Zach Clark's “Modern Love Is Automatic” from fellow Houser Steve Boone, who emailed to ask if I'd seen the SXSW 2009 hit about a nurse who becomes a dominatrix. I hadn't—though I've seen the real life version of medical professionals moonlighting as pro doms more times than I care to count. So I made a mental note to see it, then promptly missed its theatrical release at the reRun Gastropub Theater. And like so many other flicks that sadly fall off my radar, this breath-of-fresh-air gem likely would have been confined to my dusty must-see list had it not been that “Modern Love Is Automatic” is opening this year's Pornfilmfestival Berlin, where my own short, “The Story of Ramb O,” is having its world premiere. Thank heaven for kinky accidents.

To read the rest visit The House Next Door at Slant Magazine.

The Story of Ramb O at Pornfilmfestival Berlin

World premiere Sunday, October 31!






"A soldier is forever the government's bitch."

Marwencol

Jeff Malmberg's “Marwencol” takes its name from the fictional Belgian town built by the documentary's subject, Mark Hogancamp, in his Kingston, New York backyard. But Malmberg's video imagery, captured by point-and-shoot camerawork, and livened up with big band music from time to time, can't hold a candle to outsider artist Hogancamp's work. Luckily for Malmberg, he's found a highly articulate character whose life story is so captivating it matters little who's behind the lens.

To read the rest of my review visit Slant Magazine.

Robert Jay Lifton: Nazi Doctors

Directors Hannes Karnick and Wolfgang Richter seem to have taken the concept of the banality of evil too far, applying the stalest of documentary filmmaking techniques, the talking-head interview, to their “Robert Jay Lifton: Nazi Doctors,” in which the psychiatrist and Harvard lecturer Robert Jay Lifton gives us the Cliff's Notes version of his 1986 book “The Nazi Doctors: Medical Killing and the Psychology of Genocide” from the safety of his book-filled study. Lifton, who himself interviewed dozens of doctors that worked at Auschwitz, is an easygoing and engaging academic, and someone whose university course probably wouldn't put you to sleep. But, then, college classes don't have an 86-minute running time.

To read the rest of my review visit Slant Magazine.