Robert Frank: Complete Film Work Volume 2, OK End Here, Conversations in Vermont, Liferaft Earth (DVD)

Robert Frank’s significant contribution to photography in the mid-twentieth century is unquestionable. His book, The Americans, is arguably the most important American photography publication of the post-World War II period, and his photography has spawned numerous disciples, as well as a rich critical literature. However, at the very moment Frank achieved the status of a ‘star’ at the end of the 1950s, he abandoned traditional still photography to become a filmmaker. He eventually returned to photography in the 1970s, but Frank, as a filmmaker, has remained a well-kept
secret for almost four decades. Robert Frank The Complete Film Works fills a long overdue gap by presenting every one of Frank’s more than 25 films and videos, some of them classics of the New American Cinema of the 1950s and 1960s.

OK End Here is Frank’s 1963 short film about inertia in a modern relationship. The film alternates between semidocumentary scenes and shots composed with rigid formality, and appears to have been directly influenced by the French Nouvelle Vague and Michelangelo Antonioni’s films. The characters are often only partially visible or physically separated by walls, doors, reflections, or furniture, and the camera relays the story with little rhyme nor reason, a roaming gaze, which seems to lose itself in things of little importance, while at the same time capturing the dominant atmosphere of routine, alienation, and apathy.

Conversations in Vermont
“This film is about the past … when Mary and I got married…. the past and the present … Maybe this film is about
growing older … some kind of a family album.” Robert Frank in the Prologue.
Produced in 1969, this was Frank’s first autobiographical film, telling the story of a father’s relationship with his two teenaged children, and his fragile attempts to communicate with them by means of a shared story. The shared story is partly told through Frank’s narration over filmed images of his photographs, family photographs and world famous images.

Liferaft Earth begins with a newspaper report from Hayward, California: “Sandwiched between a restaurant and supermarket, 100 anti-population protesters spent their second starving day in a plastic enclosure…. The so-called Hunger Show, a week-long starve-in aimed at dramatizing man’s future in an overpopulated, underfed world….” This film accompanies the people on this “life raft” from 11 to 18 October 1969, and was made by Robert Frank for Stewart Brand, the visionary founder of the international ecological movement and publisher of the bestselling Whole Earth Catalog (1968-85).

Here is volume two of Robert Frank’s long-awaited Complete Film Works. At the end of the 1950s, Frank abandoned traditional still photography to become a filmmaker. He eventually returned to photography in the 1970s, but Frank, as a filmmaker, has remained a well-kept secret for almost four decades. Volume two comprises Conversations in Vermont, Liferaft Earth and OK End Here. Conversations in Vermont was produced in 1969, and was Frank’s first autobiographical film, addressing his relationship with his two teenaged children, and partly told through his narration over filmed images of his photographs, family photographs and world famous images. Liferaft Earth opens with a newspaper report from Hayward, California: “Sandwiched between a restaurant and supermarket, 100 anti-population protesters spent their second starving day in a plastic enclosure…The so-called Hunger Show, a week-long starve-in aimed at dramatizing man’s future in an overpopulated, underfed world .” This film was made for Stewart Brand, the visionary founder of the international ecological movement and publisher of the bestselling Whole Earth Catalog (1968-85). OK End Here is Frank’s 1963 short film about inertia in a modern relationship. The film alternates between semi-documentary scenes and shots composed with rigid formality, and suggests the influence of the French Nouvelle Vague and Michelangelo Antonioni’s films.

$ 175.00

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