Frank’s Cock

“This is one of the most assured films I have ever seen. In the simplest of frames, in monologue, Vancouver actor Callum Rennie plays a man remembering his lover lost to AIDS. Hoolboom fills his words with blood and the space behind Rennie with blood-rich images. Eight minutes of pure, perfect cinema.” – Cameron Bailey, NOW “The overwhelming losses brought about by the AIDS crisis have, in recent years, stimulated a body of artwork of extraordinary passion and urgency. In ‘Frank’s Cock,’ Mike Hoolboom, one of Canada’s most prolific experimental filmmakers, uses multiple screens as a backdrop to a man, facing the camera, telling the story of a relationship severed by AIDS. The visuals are hypnotic – here, the stark beauty of an individual, shot in black and white, is juxtaposed with a stream of impressionistic colour images. In a beautifully modulated performance, Callum Rennie plays a character whose lover, Frank, is dying. The emotional tenor of Rennie’s monologue builds delicately but steadily, as the details of his relationship with Frank unfold, an achievement which is particularly significant given the film is only eight minutes long. ‘Frank’s Cock’ deservedly garnered Hoolboom the NFB Award for best Canadian short at the Toronto film festival.”- Karen Tisch, Take One Awards: Best Canadian Short Film, Toronto International Festival, 1994; Kodak Prize, Locarno Film Festival, 1994; Best Dramatic Film, Ann Arbor Film Festival, 1994; Best Gay/Lesbian Film, Albany International Festival,1995; Award, Interfilm Festival, Berlin, 1995; Second Prize Experimental, Big Muddy Festival, 1995