USA,
2002, 85 min
Shown in 2002
CREDITS
- dir
-
Matthew Ginsburg
- prod
-
Matthew Ginsburg, Andrew Morreale, Kevin Spacey
- cam
-
Matthew Ginsburg
- editor
-
Andrew Morreale
- source
-
Clark Street Films, 23 Linden St., Garden City, NY 11530. EMAIL: amorr525@aol.com
- premiere
-
North American Premiere
-
COMMENTS
Matthew Ginsburg, Andrew Morreale, Kevin Spacey in person.
OTHER
Uncle Frank is the inspirational story of one man’s determination not to let age define his mortality. For two-and-a-half years filmmaker Matthew Ginsburg followed his octogenarian great uncle, a star within the nursing homes of Central New York, on a personal journey through the so-called golden years. Uncle Frank lives in the once-booming mining community of Rome, New York, with his wife Tillie. Surviving on a meager factory pension, the couple faces the hardships of life with wisdom and, in Frank’s case, with music. Taking up the keyboard after retirement, Frank hits the road, performing in a series of retirement homes for a grateful group of fans who sing, dance or doze through his set. When Woodstock ’99 hits town, Frank attends the concert and makes some new friends: Generation X. Dealing with different generations or their own, Frank and Tillie remain united in their approach to life and the threat of death by, in this case, Frank’s increasingly advanced cancer. “Just because you don’t feel so good,” he muses, “doesn’t mean you should just lay down and die.” A look at life, love, loneliness and the struggle to stay vital, Uncle Frank is a unique portrait of aging in America.
FACTOID #176
Hordes of screaming teenagers were fascinated with the Rolling Stones, but so were influential imagemakers Jean-Luc Godard and Robert Frank. The SFIFF has screened three different films with the Rolling Stones as the main subject: Godard’s Sympathy for the Devil (SFIFF 1972), Frank’s Cocksucker Blues (SFIFF 1998) and the IMAX documentary At the Max (SFIFF 1991).
