Career
Born in 1943, Ginsberg is based in New York City. In 1969, Ginsberg directed his first feature film. starred Rip Torn as a mentally disturbed psychologist who secretly films his sexual encounters with women. Sally Kirkland, who was simultaneously filming Futz! at the time, also stars.
The film was shot in a one-room, 15"x17" apartment in Kips Bay Plaza, on a budget of 60,000 dollars.
Shooting lasted three weeks. Ginsberg filmed the entire movie with one static camera setup, in a manner simulating a non-constructed "fake documentary" style, influenced by Jim McBride"s David Holzman"s Diary.
Critical reception was mixed. Life reviewer Richard Schickel praised Torn"s performance, Ginsberg"s inventive use of camera and sound, and the "illuminating" portrayal of a schizophrenic breakdown.
But critic Andrew Sarris gave it a less-favorable review, and the film was a commercial failure.
In 1973, Ginsberg wrote and directed the satirical horror film The Werewolf of Washington starring Dean Stockwell. Eschewing the minimalism of his previous feature, Ginsberg demonstrated a more technically complex film style. After a diagnosis of non-Hodgkin"s Lymphoma in 1975, Ginsberg became depressed and withdrew from filmmaking.
He returned to directing in 1999 and 2001, with the short films The City Below the Lincolnshire and The Haloed Bird.
More recently, he edited the miniseries Fidel for director David Attwood.