World Premiere Sundance 2016
International Premiere Rotterham 2016
NUTS! is a feature length documentary [directed by Penny Lane] about Dr. John Romulus Brinkley, an eccentric genius who built an empire in Depression-era America with a goat testicle impotence cure and a million watt radio station.
Using animated reenactments, interviews, archival footage, and a hilariously unreliable narrator, NUTS! traces Brinkley’s rise from poverty and obscurity to the heights of celebrity, wealth and influence in Depression-era America.
Along the way, he transplants tens of thousands of goat testicles; amasses an enormous fortune; is (sort of) elected Governor of Kansas; builds the world’s most powerful radio station; invents junk mail, the infomercial, the sound-truck and Border Radio; hosts some epic parties; and annoys the heck out of the establishment, until finally his audacious actions force the federal government to create regulations to stop him.
How he does it, and what happens when it all comes crashing down, is the story of NUTS!
Directed By
Penny Lane
Written By
Thom Stylinski
Produced By
Penny Lane, Caitlin Mae Burke, James Belfer and Daniel Shepard
Executive Producers
Dan Cogan, Elias Savada
Co-Producers
David Armillei, Kara Janeczko
Associate Producer
Gene Tognacci
Illustrated & Animated By
Drew Christie, Hazel Lee Santino, Michael Pisano,Rose Stark, Ace & Son Moving Picture Co., LLC,Krystal Downs, Julia Veldman
Original Score
Brian McOmber
With Support From
Creative Capital, TFI Documentary Fund (Tribeca Film Institute), Colgate University Research Council, and the many awesome people who contributed to our successful Kickstarter campaign.