The movie features celebrity sex tape broker and industry veteran Kevin Blatt, as well as video clips from his brother Darren “D-Money” Blatt’s annual Player’s Ball event.
The documentary is scheduled to air on Showtime starting at 11 p.m. Jan. 14, and is available through the OnDemand pay-per-view network throughout the month of January.
“It’s very cool. I’m absolutely flattered because for me, Kurt Loder was definitely a mentor to me,” Kevin Blatt told XBIZ. “All throughout high school and college, I aspired to be like Kurt Loder. I wanted to go into broadcasting and do reviews of concerts and movies, just like he does. I think he is probably one of the more intelligent and well-rounded journalists that has come into this industry, so to me I'm really honored because he really loved it.”
Loder describes “American Cannibal” as the story of “a pair of earnest TV scribes driven by financial desperation into the jungles of reality TV — and into the arms of a flamboyantly unsavory pornographer-financier (the evocatively named Kevin Blatt). The film makes you feel like taking a shower afterward, as long as this guy doesn't try to hop in with you.”
When asked how it affected him to be referred to as “flamboyantly unsavory” by Loder, Blatt said, “I love it, because that is exactly what I tried to be, as a porn guy."
“The producer hit me up because they saw me in a lot of media and with the salacious stories and how I spoke about the industry,” Blatt said. “They thought there was something about me that was a little bit different, and they thought, ‘This guy would be perfect for this role, and he needs to be himself.’ That’s the perception and reality thing; I gave people what they think I am or what they perceive me to be.”
Blatt said that while the premise of the movie was based on real life circumstances, there was a performance aspect to his role, as well.
“Perception is reality,” he said, “and that’s why people who watch the movie will say, ‘Well that’s just K.B. being K.B.’ But when you have cameras on you and a boom hanging over you, and you have somewhat of a script that you’re kind of following — it’s not real, it’s contrived.
"What you see in the movie is all real; but am I playing up for the camera what a porn guy is supposed to look like? Yeah. Am I trying to sound like what a porn guy is supposed to sound like? Absolutely. To make it a better movie, I had to push a lot of buttons to make people crazy, so a lot of the things I do are over the top, but then again, that’s what people were expecting of me,” Blatt said.
“No true story was more deeply strange than the one told in this mesmerizing indie,” said Loder in his round up.
Loder is best known for his work on MTV’s “Week on Rock” and “MTV News” and has also written for publications including Rolling Stone and Circus Magazine.
Blatt is scheduled to show more of his real side as co-host of the XBIZ Industry Awards , to be held Feb. 7 at the Highlands in Hollywood, Calif.
