Synopsis

The main characters (lawyer - son - wife - oriental girl - actor - a colleague) are getting ready for a book-signing party given to honor the writer. The event plays in an empty lot in Harlem. Fragments of the writer's old video tapes will interrupt the footage prior to the party.

The film follows the events which happen to the six characters as they go to and return from - the party. Isolated - like fish in a bowl - the party is being watched by the neighbourhood. While the black people have to deal with the practicality of life, the party people are obsessed with their identity, their status, their success.

But the writer himself never turns up. In the end, we can understand the artist's fear and his doubts; that is the irony... of belonging to an "elite group of New Yorkers".

Details

Duration52 Minutes
Format16mm, blow up 35mm, Farbe
ProductionCoproduction Switzerland/England Produktion: Vega Film, World Wide International Television In Koproduktion mit: Eidgenössisches Departement des Innern EDI, Société Suisse de Radiodiffusion et Television, BBC London, WDR, Migros Kulturprozent

Credits

DirectorRobert Frank
ScriptRobert Frank, Sam North, Michal Rovner
ProducerRuth Waldburger, Martin Rosebaum
CastZohra Lampert, John Larkin, Taylor Mead, Chris Parker, William Rice, William Youmans
PhotographyKevin Kerslake, Mustapha Barat, Robert Frank
EditingJay Rabinowitz
SoundScott Breindel, Mathew Price, Pierre-Alain Besse
Art directionTom Jarmush
VersionsEdf