Road Closed Finley Fryer Film
Special Screening: Road Closed by Finley Fryer
Laurence Cook, metacirque
This is one of the Super 8mm films shot on an early 1970s cross-country road trip by Finley Fryer and Robert Frank. The films were surreal edits of staged and spontaneous activities, jumping back & forth in time & space. The films are owned by Finley Fryer, who also did the edit. Finley is a painter and sculptor from Northern California, best known for his monumental sculptures at “Burning Man” between 1998 and 2002. He met Robert Frank when Frank was teaching at the University of California at Davis. The two men eventually traveled together across the United States in a pickup truck with a Super 8mm camera. Fryer & Frank switched between shooting and appearing in the films. Road Closed run six and a half minutes and will be projected from a recent digital transfer of the print.
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Road Closed : Restoration of a Super-8mm Finley Fryer Road Movie
Laurence Cook, Metacirque
Road Closed represents an example of media archaeology, and also
demonstrates the robustness of small gauge production. It was created when
artist and film-maker Finley Fryer encountered the photographer Robert
Frank. According to Fryer, “This film was created from my adventures over a
number of years in the mid 70’s. The heart of the film comes from a road
trip with Robert Frank, myself and his dog Sport. In the spring of 1974,
when Robert had finished his ten week visiting artist residency at
University of Davis, we drove his Ford pickup truck from California back
to New York city. The balance of the footage is from upstate New York and
Mabou, Nova Scotia.” It was shot with a Minolta Autopak 8 K11, using
Super-8mm Ektachrome 160 and Tri-X (probably XXX-400). It was edited in
the mid- to late 1970s, and it was largely untouched by the film-maker until
recent rediscovery.