Copyright John Cohen/Courtesy Deborah Bell Photographs, New York.

DIRECTED BY PHILIPPE SÉCLIER

FRANCE • 2009 • 60 MINS.
IN ENGLISH & FRENCH WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES • Lorber Films

More than 50 years ago, in 1958, Robert Frank’s seminal book, The Americans, was published to great acclaim — as well as to negative reviews that faulted his vision of a nation awash in poverty, racism and postwar jingoism. Today it is impossible to overstate the influence of Frank’s groundbreaking work. AN AMERICAN JOURNEY travels back to the small towns and rural communities the photographer immortalized — exploring the world as Frank saw it and as it survives today. Artist Edward Ruscha, publisher Barney Rosset, photographers John Cohen and Raymond Depardon, and curators/critics Vicki Goldberg, Sara Greenough and Peter Galassi explore the feelings of anger and alienation which fueled the Swiss-born Robert Frank in his American journey.

Click here to see two short clips from AN AMERICAN JOURNEY.

Note: The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s exhibit, "Looking In: Robert Frank’s ‘The Americans,’" opens September 22.
Click here for more information on the show.

PLUS

IN THE STREET

A FILM BY HELEN LEVITT, JANICE LOEB
& JAMES AGEE

USA 1945/1952 14 MINS.

IN THE STREET, shot in East Harlem in the late 1940s, immortalizes a period in New York when the streets, sidewalks, stoops, and doorways were the playground of the poor.