EXCLUSIVE: Daniel Lombroso, the journalist and director who helped build the Oscar-nominated video departments of The New Yorker and The Atlantic, has teamed with veteran comedy producer Kerry Mack to launch new documentary production company Outerboro Films.
Based in Brooklyn, the studio will focus on stories that go inside the fringe to capture the absurdity of modern American life. Its first feature out of the gate is You’ll Be Happier, a doc on the world of male penis enlargement, with the backing of executive producers Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato of World of Wonder (RuPaul’s Drag Race, The Eyes of Tammy Faye), as well as EPs Penny Lane, Gabriel Sedgwick, and Marcus Gershenberg, and the production company Madhouse Films.
Following a gay Texas businessman striving to make penis enlargement as common as Botox, You’ll Be Happier is currently in post and will be ready for a 2026 festival run. Other projects on Outerboro’s 2026 slate include a Jewish-inspired marathon film that follows up on Lombroso’s award-winning short with Errol Morris, Nina & Irena; a television show about New York’s most iconic driving school instructor with the production company Voyager; and a film on Christian Nationalism, premiering in The New Yorker this May.
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Lombroso and Mack shared that their hope with Outerboro Films will be to carry immersive journalism forward through a period of market turmoil.
Said Lombroso, who began his career by spending four years embedded with white nationalist groups for his acclaimed feature White Noise, “In this moment of political crisis, we’re energized by the weird, the gonzo, the fringe. At Outerboro films, we want to tell stories inside America’s underbelly.”
Coming to partner with Lombroso after collaborating with the multi-hyphenate on Proof of Concept, a comedic short starring Richard Kind, Mack said that it’s the duo’s shared comedic sensibility that drew them together. “As Daniel and I embark on this exciting new venture,” she added, “we are thrilled that together we can shed light on our turbulent times, while providing the much-needed levity audiences are craving.”
Repped by WME, management company Curate, and Granderson Des Rochers, Lombroso’s work for The New Yorker and The Atlantic spanned nearly a decade. His debut feature, White Noise, premiered to critical acclaim in 2020, being named one of the year’s top documentaries by Vox and The Boston Globe. Lombroso’s film, Nina & Irena, was one of the most decorated short documentaries of 2023. His work has premiered at Sundance, TIFF and IDFA, and has been recognized with eight Vimeo Staff Picks, two National Magazine Award nominations, an IDA nomination, and mention on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list.
A Post Supervisor, as well as a producer, Mack’s projects have screened worldwide at film festivals and can be seen on Hulu, Netflix, Max, PBS, The New Yorker and more. Her most recent projects — The Final Cut, written and directed by Sascha Seinfeld and starring Henry Winkler, and Proof of Concept — are currently on the festival circuit.