DON'T BLINK - ROBERT FRANK
A film by Laura Israel
2015, 82 minutes
2015, 82 minutes
No. 034
DOCUMENTARY
DOCUMENTARY
Description
The life and work of Robert Frank—as a photographer and a filmmaker—are so intertwined that they’re one in the same, and the vast amount of territory he’s covered, from The Americans to landmark films like Pull My Daisy (with the Beats) and Cocksucker Blues (with the Rolling Stones) is intimately registered in his now formidable body of artistic gestures.
From the early ’90s on, Frank has been making his films and videos with the brilliant editor Laura Israel, who has helped him to keep things homemade and preserve the illuminating spark of first contact between camera and people/places.
Don’t Blink is Israel’s like-minded portrait of her friend and collaborator, a lively rummage sale of images and sounds and recollected passages and unfathomable losses and friendships that leaves us a fast and fleeting imprint of the life of the Swiss-born man who reinvented himself the American way, and is still standing on ground of his own making at the age of 90.
From the early ’90s on, Frank has been making his films and videos with the brilliant editor Laura Israel, who has helped him to keep things homemade and preserve the illuminating spark of first contact between camera and people/places.
Don’t Blink is Israel’s like-minded portrait of her friend and collaborator, a lively rummage sale of images and sounds and recollected passages and unfathomable losses and friendships that leaves us a fast and fleeting imprint of the life of the Swiss-born man who reinvented himself the American way, and is still standing on ground of his own making at the age of 90.
Festivals
* Official Selection, New York Film Festival
* Official Selection, Berlin Film Festival
* Official Selection, Berlin Film Festival
Reviews
“An illuminating biopic of the game-changing photographer/filmmaker.” – Amy Taubin, Artforum
"A portrait of a quintessential New York artist... compact, fast-moving... an impressive achievement... You leave with a vivid sense of the man’s living presence." - The New York Times
“Recontextualizes those iconic photographs in the greater narrative of a large, risky, and purposefully imperfect career, and for that it is rich viewing." – Rebecca Bengal, Vogue
“Intimate, impressionistic, and irascibly entertaining.” – Aaron HIllis, Village Voice
"A worthy testament to one of the best photographers of our time. Recommended." - Educational Media Reviews Online
“A provocative portrait of its equally provocative subject. Vividly conveys his passionate artistic spirit, defiant iconoclasm and lifelong aversion to compromise.” – Frank Scheck, Hollywood Reporter
“An informed, intimate film that’s funny, warm and multi-faceted. In focusing on one man, Don’t Blink also chronicles a half-century of New York creativity and irreverence.” – Godfrey Cheshire, RogerEbert.com
"A portrait of a quintessential New York artist... compact, fast-moving... an impressive achievement... You leave with a vivid sense of the man’s living presence." - The New York Times
“Recontextualizes those iconic photographs in the greater narrative of a large, risky, and purposefully imperfect career, and for that it is rich viewing." – Rebecca Bengal, Vogue
“Intimate, impressionistic, and irascibly entertaining.” – Aaron HIllis, Village Voice
"A worthy testament to one of the best photographers of our time. Recommended." - Educational Media Reviews Online
“A provocative portrait of its equally provocative subject. Vividly conveys his passionate artistic spirit, defiant iconoclasm and lifelong aversion to compromise.” – Frank Scheck, Hollywood Reporter
“An informed, intimate film that’s funny, warm and multi-faceted. In focusing on one man, Don’t Blink also chronicles a half-century of New York creativity and irreverence.” – Godfrey Cheshire, RogerEbert.com
