Another Light on the Road: Robert Frank and June Leaf's Canadian Home [work in progress]. 2024. Directed by Kathryn Whalen, John Parlante

Another Light on the Road: Robert Frank and June Leaf's Canadian Home [work in progress]. 2024. USA. Directed by Kathryn Whalen, John Parlante. DCP. Approximately 78 min.

MoMA presents the premiere of Kathryn Whalen and John Parlante’s work-in-progress film portrait of the artist June Leaf and the hardscrabble seaside farmhouse and studio she shared for 50 years with her husband, Robert Frank, in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. A project June initiated shortly after Robert’s death in 2019, Another Light in the Road stands as a testament not only to the artist couple’s powerfully intimate and creative relationship but also to their enduring ties to the Mabou community of Cape Breton, as we see friends and neighbors gather in the warmth of her kitchen to share colorful stories. Robert and June were profoundly shaped by the landscape of Mabou, with its bitterly windswept winters, its rhythms of sea and light, and its pioneering routine of wood gathering, clothes hanging, window gazing, and art making. After Robert’s death, June continued working tirelessly on new sculptures and paintings. Not long before her own death, on July 1, 2024, June was able to watch a cut of the film and share her satisfaction with Whalen and Parlante, confiding, “You must be very happy to have made this film. I am happy to have this.”