C’est Vrai, 1990, 60 min., video
The Present, 1996, 24 min., video
Total running time: 84 min.
SFMOMA would like to thank the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, home of the Robert Frank Film and Video Archive, for its support in providing prints and other assistance for this program.
C’est Vrai is a one-hour trip through New York City’s Lower East Side, produced on video for French television without editing the narrative. It presents a startling juxtaposition of scripted fiction, which appears to be drawn from real life and improvised documentation that overlays the story when Peter Orlovsky arrives to confront the filmmaker.
Simple objects, photographs, and events prompt Frank to self-conscious rumination in The Present. From his homes in New York and Nova Scotia and on visits to friends, the artist contemplates his relationships, the anniversary of his daughter’s death, his son’s mental illness, and his work.