Actors pushing cart--Filming "Landammann Stauffacher" 1941

Curator: Robert Frank's gelatin-silver print, "Actors pushing cart--Filming \"Landammann Stauffacher\"", created in 1941, offers a glimpse behind the scenes of a film production. What's your initial take on it? Editor: Immediately, I notice a sort of grim determination in the group of figures pushing the cart. There's a stark realism to the scene, a palpable sense of collective effort and perhaps a touch of underlying tension in this monochrome frame. Curator: Precisely. This photograph allows us to reflect on the sociopolitical backdrop of Switzerland during World War II. Consider the climate: this historical film, “Landammann Stauffacher," became a form of "spiritual national defense" projecting Swiss identity and resistance. It becomes a powerful message when viewed in such a time of strife. Editor: Absolutely. The choice to film *that* particular historical subject – the legendary figure of Swiss resistance – couldn't have been accidental. But tell me more, what does it tell us about how these images were consumed at the time, especially knowing how carefully cultural outputs were regulated? Curator: During the era, strict content controls ensured films aligned with the national ideology, reinforcing narratives of independence. In film, historical epics promoted self-determination through heroic accounts of the past, becoming potent vehicles of propaganda amid external pressures. Editor: I also note how Frank's photograph situates itself – literally – behind the narrative that the actual film tried to propagate. Instead of valorizing heroic narratives, it captures the behind-the-scenes effort of people on set. So in a way, it’s resisting or questioning the idealized images shown on film by exposing its laborious process. Curator: That's a great observation. The realism here complicates the narrative of idealized national identity. It pushes us to consider how the act of creation is itself a construction, a curated performance of identity. I wonder if Frank was trying to capture the labor behind the mythmaking? Editor: Possibly. I suppose its strength lies in prompting conversations surrounding what goes into the making of any nation’s narratives, no matter how triumphant or heroic the packaging may be. Curator: It seems both the film, and Frank's photograph invite conversations surrounding how identity is manufactured and communicated.