Francisco Ricardo’s film work has aimed to treat film not as a visual entertainment medium but as a writing instrument, following the tradition of the French New Wave. In 1948, Alexandre Astruc wrote an article titled “Birth of a New Avant-Garde: The Camera as Pen” for the influential journal Cahiers du Cinema, in which he argued for cinema, like literature, should be used as a personal medium of expression, one in which the camera literally became a pen in the hands of a director. Francisco Ricardo applied this principle not to fiction film, but to the realism of documentary.

Two feature films are presented here.

 

F for Franco documents the view of Hollywood as a façade-fabricating machine exposed by James Franco, his student, who as a celebrity for twenty years engaged in a series of reflective writings, paintings, film, sculpture and performance works that revealed how the film industry creates false identity that has lasting cultural and psychological impact for coming-of-age youth each successive generation.

 

Journey to a Dream follows the story of the greatest living jazz trumpeter today and how his unswerving vision of passion, dedication, and love of his art brought him from the obscure depths of Communism to multiple Grammy awards, an Emmy, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.