Directed by Derek Hackert
To Be Frank is a project that started as my senior thesis film from The University of Michigan. After revisiting the film 2 years post-grad, the short documentary received selections from Hell's Half Mile Film Festival, Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival, an award for "Best University Documentary" from Foxtail Film Festival, as well as an award for "Most Outstanding Thesis" from the University of Michigan.
"Frank was exceptional, and for 20 years his grandson Derek was only somewhat certain of this. There was the shitty smooth jazz, the popcorn machine precariously placed, and those massive steel-worker hands, but Derek never heard Frank speak. Desperate to hear his grandfather's choice words, Derek searches the family archives, tape after tape, and slowly pieces together Frank's forgotten voice. "