Fire in the east: a portrait of Robert Frank [NTSC]

Swiss-born photographer renowned for capturing the “raw stuff of life”, Robert Frank moved to the United States in 1953 and soon found himself a part of the Beat Generation along with other artists, poets, writers and photographers. This documentary presents a biographical portrait of Frank and the enormous influence his work has had on contemporary photography. In 1955 he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship and spent two years travelling across America photographing all that encompasses the American way of life, resulting in the publication in 1958 of an extraordinary photo-journal titled “The Americans” (introduction written by his friend Jack Kerouac). By 1959 Frank was experimenting with filmmaking producing his first film “Pull my daisy” which featured Allen Ginsberg and Gregory Corso, and script and voiceover by Jack Kerouac. Frank continued to make films well into the 60s including “Me and my brother” and “Conversations in Vermont”. By the 1970s he had moved to Canada and began to divide his energies between film, video and photography producing an amazing array of work - forever, it seems, in search of the truth “out there”. This award-winning documentary features Frank’s photographs, excerpts from his films, and interviews with many of his collaborators and contemporaries, including Rudy Wurlitzer (writer), Louis Faurer (photographer), Elliott Erwitt (photographer), Emile de Antonio (filmmaker), June Leaf (artist) and Allen Ginsberg (poet). Contains some b&w images and archival footage. Narrated by Philip Brookman.