“Candy Mountain,” the indie cult classic about a musician’s quest to find a legendary guitar craftsman, has been digitally restored in 2K and will be re-released to theaters on October 25. Originally released in 1987, the film stars Kevin J O’Conner and Harris Yulin, as well as French icon Bulle Ogier, with a supporting cast of real-life music legends Tom Waits, Leon Redbone, Joe Strummer, Dr. John, David Johansen and Arto Lindsay. Called “A wry, laid-back ‘Heart of Darkness’" (Chicago Reader), “Candy Mountain” combines the keen eye of the legendary photographer Robert Frank with novelist/screenwriter Rudy Wurlitzer’s mythic American prose to produce the quintessential road movie.

Check out the trailer on YouTube here:

Set in New York in the 1980s, “Candy Mountain” follows a struggling musician named Julius (Kevin J. O’Connor) who has fallen on hard times. With no guitar, band or paying gigs, he cooks up a get-rich-quick scheme: to find the legendary, yet elusive guitar-maker Elmore Silk (Harris Yulin). Considered one of the greatest luthiers in the business, Silk’s disappearance from the music scene has only made his work more coveted by musicians and executives intent on capitalizing on his name. Meant to be a simple journey upstate to track Silk down, Julius stumbles down a long, winding road full of dead-ends and wrong turns, ending in an eventual revelation in the Canadian wilderness. 

Called “Frank’s ultimate work” by The Village Voice, top critics feted the now cult classic with Desson Thomas of The Washington Post saying, "The big surprise in Candy Mountain is how much fun it is. Co-directors Robert Frank and Rudy Wurlitzer take the dated road movie (concept) off its bricks, gussy it up and keep it chugging along. And you get sweeter on ‘Candy’ with every passing mile" and Caryn James of The New York Times wrote, “'Candy Mountain’... seems to be a small, quirky film, but it easily assumes the weight, ambition and success that many larger films aim for and miss."

This year the art world will be celebrating Frank, who broke new ground with his candid, poignant images of American life in the mid-20th century. Among the events and exhibitions to be held, celebrating his radical approach to image making that forever changed the course of photography and film are “Life Dances On: Robert Frank in Dialogue,” the first-ever solo exhibition of his work to be presented at the Museum of Modern Art in New York which will begin in September 2024.

 About Film Movement

Founded in 2002, Film Movement is a North American distributor of award-winning independent and foreign films based in New York City. It has released more than 350 feature films and shorts culled from prestigious film festivals worldwide. Film Movement’s theatrical releases include American independent films, documentaries, and foreign art house titles. Its catalog includes titles by directors such as Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Lee Isaac Chung, Hirokazu Kore-eda, Maren Ade, Jessica Hausner, Andrei Konchalovsky, Andrzej Wajda, Diane Kurys, Ciro Guerra and Melanie Laurent. In 2015, Film Movement launched its reissue label Film Movement Classics, featuring new restorations released theatrically as well as on Blu-ray and DVD, including films by such noted directors as Ang Lee, Eric Rohmer, Luchino Visconti, Stanley Kwan, Peter Greenaway, Bille August, Marleen Gorris, Takeshi Kitano, Arturo Ripstein, King Hu, Sergio Corbucci and Ettore Scola. For more information, please visit www.filmmovement.com. Visit www.filmmovementplus.com for more information about Film Movement Plus, Film Movement’s critically lauded streaming subscription service.

CANDY MOUNTAIN (1987)

Directed by: Robert Frank & Rudy Wurlitzer
Written by: Rudy Wurlitzer
Cast: Kevin J. O’Connor, Harris Yulin, Tom Waits, Joe Strummer, Arto Lindsay, David Johansen, Leon Redbone, Dr. John
Produced by: Phillipe Diaz, Ruth Waldburger, Tom Rothman
Co-Produced by: Claude Bonin, Suzanne Hénaut, Miléna Poylo
Executive Produced by: Gerald B. Dearing
Director of Photography: Pio Corradi
Music by: Dr. John, David Johansen, Rita MacNeil, Leon Redbone