Critic Shelf
Home
Discover
Sign in
Your rating
Tap a star, half steps count

The Hollow Coin

Jun 12, 2016 · 13m
No ratings yet
Documentary
Comedy
Thriller

PLOT

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.

REVIEWS

View reviews

CAST

Jesse Wakeman
Directed by Frank Heath

DETAILS

Status
Released
Original language
EN
Budget
—
Revenue
—
Country
US

SIMILAR TITLES

Asymptomatic Carrier
2013
Phone
1974
The Jerky Boys
1995
I Saw What You Did
1965
Dead Tone
2007
Twitz from Pluto: Graff, Jackass and TV Casualty
2022
Critic Shelf
Rate what you watch, show it on shelves, and compare taste with anyone. Film and TV data from TMDB.
ACCOUNT
Sign in
Create account
Delete account
COMPANY
About
Contact
Privacy
Terms
This product uses TMDB and the TMDB APIs but is not endorsed, certified, or otherwise approved by TMDB.
© 2026 Critic Shelf
WATCH · RATE · COMPARE