Patti Smith - Summer Cannibals

What this video is

Released in 1996 as the lead single from Gone Again, 'Summer Cannibals' marked Patti Smith's return to recording after an eight-year absence defined by domestic life in Detroit and the 1994 death of her husband Fred 'Sonic' Smith. The album is a document of profound grief — Smith had also lost her brother Todd, longtime collaborator Robert Mapplethorpe, and pianist Richard Sohl. By enlisting Robert Frank — a titan…

Why it matters

Represents a pivotal artifact of mid-90s art-punk revival and the broader cultural reassertion of first-generation punk figures in the alternative rock mainstream. The Frank-directed video is a rare collision of canonical fine-art photography/filmmaking with the pop music video format, and stands…

The director

Robert Frank (1924–2019) was a Swiss-American photographer and documentary filmmaker. His 1958 photobook The Americans is considered one of the most influential photography books of the 20th century. He transitioned to filmmaking with Pull My Daisy (1959), a…