Furman Gallery

The Frieda and Roy Furman Gallery is located in the Walter Reade Theater at 165 West 65th Street, plaza level, between Broadway and Amsterdam. The gallery hosts receptions, exhibits and other events related to the Film Society of Lincoln Center and the New York Film Festival.

Currently on Display:
In conjunction with our Film Comment Selects festival (February 17 – March 1), the Furman Gallery will be hosting an installation by actor/director/artist James Franco inspired by Gus van Sant's New Queer Cinema masterpiece My Own Private Idaho (1991) and its late star River Phoenix.

The installation comprises three video pieces:

My Own Private River (2011)
James Franco & Gus van Sant
Film, transferred to DVD with sound
Running time: 102 minutes
Music: Michael Stipe

Idaho (2011)
James Franco
Super-8, transferred to DVD with sound
Running time: 62 minutes

In a Blue Funk (2011)
James Franco
Film and iPhone footage transferred to DVD with sound
Running time: 105 minutes

James Franco’s My Own Private River (2011) is a reworking of Gus van Sant’s now classic film My Own Private Idaho (1991).  Franco’s film uses the dailies and unused footage from the original film of River Phoenix and Keanu Reeves.  My Own Private River is both a portrait of River Phoenix, the actor, and his character, Mike, in the original film.  It is a collage of images and scenes from the original film but focuses on Phoenix's character.  Observational in nature, Franco creates a non-linear, dreamlike portrait of the actor and his on-screen incarnation.

Franco's Idaho (2011) was shot on 8mm from an original script by Gus van Sant.  It follows two young boys on a journey to find one of their mothers.  The film was one of three scripts van Sant wrote that became My Own Private Idaho. 

The newly finished In a Blue Funk (2012) rounds out the exhibition.  The film is a mix of original footage from the My Own Private Idaho dailies and new footage shot on the iPhone.  From another original script by van Sant, this script was used partly in the original film and the rest was never shot.  So Franco and his team shot the rest of the script and put the new and old footage together to make the complete original film.

The screening of My Own Private River for Film Comment Selects coincides with the installation of Franco and van Sant’s "Memories of Idaho".  The installation in the Furman Gallery at the Walter Reade Theatre is designed to look like a church basement AA meeting.  Filled with heavy drapes and mismatched chairs, the room also contains projections of My Own Private River and Idaho (2011) and In a Blue Funk (2012). The three films work as great companion pieces to each other.  Distinctly different in style, the three films create a whole portrait based on the original film by van Sant.

The gallery installation is produced by John Morrow with associate producer Alexandra Slattery.