Anthology Film Archives

Film Screenings / Programs / Series

ROBERT FRANK CENTENNIAL: INFLUENCES

December 12 – December 22

December 12-22, 2024

This year marks the centennial of the renowned photographer, filmmaker, and artist, Robert Frank, whose extraordinary body of work, restless intelligence and creativity, greatness of spirit, and deeply-rooted counter-cultural sensibility have marked him as one of the most important figures in 20th-21st century art and culture.

Within film circles, Frank is widely celebrated as the maker of the Beat cinema classic, PULL MY DAISY (which is part of Anthology’s foundational Essential Cinema cycle). This seminal film, made in collaboration with Alfred Leslie, Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and others, signaled Frank’s transition from photography – within which he’d established himself as a key figure thanks to the publication in 1958 of “The Americans” – to filmmaking. Though PULL MY DAISY remains his most well-known film, it was merely the starting point for what would become a body of moving-image work whose richness, depth of personal conviction, and formal invention is unsurpassed. This oeuvre encompasses a masterpiece of documentary/fiction hybrid filmmaking (ME AND MY BROTHER), several uncategorizable collaborations with writer Rudy Wurlitzer, and numerous video-diary works that find Frank observing himself, his wife, artist June Leaf (who passed away earlier this year), his neighbors, and the wider world around him.

Frank’s centennial will be celebrated throughout New York this fall and winter. Currently on display at the Museum of Modern Art are two exhibitions, one (“Life Dances On: Robert Frank in Dialogue”) focusing on the body of work that came after “The Americans”, the other (“Robert Frank’s Scrapbook Footage”) showcasing unseen film and video footage that was discovered after his death. Later in the fall, MoMA will offer a complete retrospective of Frank’s own moving-image work. And from November 15-December 21, Pace Gallery will present the exhibition “Hope Makes Visions” at its gallery at 540 West 25th St, which will center on Frank’s process across various media. In conjunction with all these events, Anthology presents a series encompassing films that inspired or impacted Frank, as well as films and videos by other filmmakers and artists (such as Sara Driver, Jem Cohen, and Jim Jarmusch), whose work was deeply influenced by Frank (both his art and his spirit). We’ll also be screening Frank’s own CANDY MOUNTAIN (1988) (part of which was filmed at Anthology’s 2nd Avenue Courthouse building), and HARRY SMITH AT THE BRESLIN HOTEL (2018), his short filmic portrait of artist and filmmaker Harry Smith.

This series was organized in collaboration with the June Leaf and Robert Frank Foundation.

For more info about the exhibitions and programming at MoMA and Pace Gallery visit: https://www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions and https://www.pacegallery.com/exhibitions/ 

Special thanks to Shahrzad Kamel (The June Leaf and Robert Frank Foundation); Laura Israel; Jem Cohen; Sara Driver; Jim Jarmusch; Elena Baenninger (Consulate General of Switzerland in New York); Brian Belovarac (Janus Films); Chris Chouinard (Park Circus); Arielle de Saint Phalle; Braden King & Laura Moya; Lewie & Noah Kloster; Marian Luntz & Tracy Stephenson (Museum of Fine Arts, Houston); Lauren Panzo & Kaelan Kleber (Pace Gallery); Braden King & Laura Moya; and Todd Wiener & Steven Hill (UCLA Film & Television Archive).

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