Publisher's Synopsis
Robert Franks 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 32 minutes 1963 A short film about inertia in a modern relationship, 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 or 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 26 minutes 1969 Franks first autobiographical film, it relates the story of a fathers relationship with his two teenage children, and his fragile attempts to communicate with them by means of a shared story. The shared story is partly told through Franks narration over filmed images of his photographs, family photographs and world famous images. Liferaft Earth 37 minutes 1969 A film made by Frank for Stewart Brand, the visionary founder of the international ecological movement and publisher of the bestselling Whole Earth Catalog (19681985).
