Storyline

Frank Heath's "The Hollow Coin" explores roles of authority in public space and the intersection of personal and historical narratives. The video combines documentary footage of New York City's rapidly disappearing network of payphones with audio of a covertly recorded telephone exchange between an actor and an unknowing bystander. In the surreptitiously captured conversation an attempted "information leak" is infused with an absurd story and a historical anecdote. The work's title refers to a Soviet spy who was apprehended in 1953 after mistakenly paying his newspaper delivery boy with a hollow coin that contained a microfilm of an encrypted message. Throughout the video a parallel sequence of events reveals that images from the video itself have been stored on an SD card concealed within a hollow coin and inserted into the payphone from which the call was made.

Key Information

Director Frank Heath
Language EN

Frequently Asked Questions

The Hollow Coin was released on June 12, 2016.

The runtime of The Hollow Coin is 13m.

The Hollow Coin is a Documentary, Comedy, Thriller movie.

The Hollow Coin is available to watch. Check streaming platforms and theaters near you.

The Hollow Coin was directed by Frank Heath.

The Hollow Coin is originally in English.