• about/contact
• upcoming events
• past events
• picks

Join PopRally and CMJ as we kick off the 2007 CMJ film festival with a premier event. We will screen Frank & Cindy, a no-holds-barred film by G.J. Echternkamp in which he follows his seriously dysfunctional parents through the course of their relationship.

When Cindy married a rock star named Frank in 1983, she imagined a life of glamour and Grammys. But the song that propelled Frank to fame, "Whirly Girl," would be the only chart-topper from his short-lived group, OXO. Years later, out of shape and nearly bankrupt after spending his money on "gas, food, dry cleaning, and drugs," Frank is not the vision Cindy married.

Desperate to resuscitate her dream, Cindy furnishes a new studio for Frank in the hope that he'll record another hit. Instead, he'd rather drink. Upset by his lack of ambition, Cindy berates him incessantly. And now, twenty-three years after appearing on American Bandstand, Frank lives sequestered in the basement, where he uses coffee cans as his improvised bathroom.

Both appalled and amused by his parents' behavior, Cindy's filmmaker son, G.J., picks up his video camera and aims it at them. After a year of filming, what began as an attempt to mock his one-hit-wonder stepfather instead becomes a candid portrait of the pursuit of happiness.

The screening will be followed by a Q&A session with the filmmaker and his parents, Frank and Cindy, which will be moderated by This American Life's Ira Glass.

Afterwards, join us upstairs for cocktails and music by JDH of Fixed, NYC.

PopRally would like to thank Reyka Vodka, Schwelmer beer, and Guayaki Yerba Mate for their sponsorship.

Photo credit: Williams + Hirakawa