‘We’ve all been around long enough to watch a mountain crumble to dust. Mine was my father.’
Contained within the sterile environment of a snake anti-venom factory in West Wales, Frank is struggling to make peace with the recent death of his father. Unsatisfied with his job, he revisits memories in a hope of changing his future and putting to rest a complex father-son relationship.
FRANK is an eerily beautiful and poignant short film featuring original poetry by Frank Thomas and music by Sam Jones.
Based in Wales, the Jones Collective draw inspiration from the people and communities they meet. FRANK is inspired by, and created with, poet and real-life snake anti-venom factory worker, Frank Thomas.
“Eleven minutes of depth and nuance… honestly moving, visually strong, and like all good short films, lingers like a flash in the darkness.” Wales Arts Review
FRANK premiered at Chapter Arts Centre on 22 February 2022, Cardiff and was broadcast online from 22 February to 21 March 2022.
From a pre-pandemic site-specific spectacle to its digital reimagining, making FRANK has been quite the ride. During filming in Chepstow Woods, we asked the creators, Buddug James Jones, Frank Thomas, Jesse Briton, and Sam Jones to share the show’s twists and turns. Read Making FRANK: from forest to screen.
The Jones Collective and Plastique Fantastique had planned on spending the last couple of years in the forests and woods of Wales, sharing their artistic collaboration. Like many others, plans had to change and conversations under the canopy were traded for video calls and virtual connections.
Though we missed the trees, the time to think meant time to explore. Yena Young from Plastique Fantastique and Buddug continued to collaborate, and reached out to experts to explore themes and topics relevant to their collaboration. Their conversation was recorded and these conversations are available as a podcast series.
With thanks to funding from The German Embassy and the Goethe-Institut London.