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“Su Friedrich's films achieve a unique synthesis of formal structures and human experience that solidifies her position as one of the most important contemporary experimental filmmakers in America.” Senses of Cinema
“Over the years, Friedrich has blazed a path for a different kind of filmmaking—and a different kind of filmgoing experience. Lyrical, poetic, passionate and innovative, her films are among the most rewarding cinematic delicacies you’ll ever find.” Jenni Olson, Bay Area Reporter
“...the deft interplay of voices, words and images creates a steady accretion of metaphors and insights that are sharp and multilayered. Friedrich’s true achievement is in self-portraiture, boldly revealing a woman in all her difficult, naked complexity.” Holly Willis, LA Weekly
There will be a screening of different films by Su Friedrich at the Egyptian Theater on Wednesday, March 21 – see information below.
Detailed Program
Sink or Swim
(1990, 48 min., b&w, 16mm)
A contemporary classic and a landmark in autobiographical filmmaking, Sink or Swim is an unflinching account of the highly charged relationship between a daughter and her father. Through a series of twenty-six short stories, a young girl chronicles the childhood events that shaped her ideas about fatherhood, family relations, work and play. As the stories unfold, a dual portrait emerges: that of a father who cared more for his career than for his family, and of a daughter who was deeply affected by his behavior. Working in counterpoint to the forceful text are sensual black and white images that depict both the extraordinary and ordinary events of daily life. This formally complex and emotionally intense film is fraught with tension, ambivalence and love.
Seeing Red
(2005, 27 min, DigiBeta)
Los Angeles premiere
In Seeing Red, three elements run parallel, overlap, diverge, lock horns and in various other ways give voice to the notion that a color, a melody, or a person has multiple characteristics that cannot be grasped by, or understood within, a simple framework. One element is purely visual. One is very verbal and minimally visual. One is purely musical. So is red the color of a fire truck or a ruby, of rust or a rose, of blood or a brick? How fixed is a melody if it can be twisted, stretched and shaken to the point where we no longer recognize its original form? And when we “see red,” what color is that exactly? What aspect of passion are we feeling? Are we looking outward and seeing injustice and cupidity, or looking inward at our own limitations and failings? – Su Friedrich
The Head of a Pin
(2004, 21 min, DigiBeta)
Los Angeles Premiere
Those of us who grow up in cities and continue living in them tend to have a romantic view of life in the countryside. Moreover, we know every subway route, shopping district and urban legend of our city, and feel that our "street smarts" enable us to function anywhere – but put us out in the country and we’re just plain stupid about almost everything that nature has to offer. What’s the name of that tree with the peeling bark? What fish just jumped? And are those beaver, heron, goose or duck tracks? And then… by going to the country, you hope to find it… so quiet, so peaceful, so safe, so gentle… And it is until you spend twenty minutes watching a spider work over and finally kill an insect twice its size.
About the filmmaker
From her beginnings in the American feminist movement of the late 1970s, Su Friedrich has articulated the slogan “the personal is political” with innovative language and narrative forms. Intense and specific personal experiences sound out striking resonances with larger social, political, and sexual structures. But while the emotional textures of her work are personal, they are also highly mediated, influenced by the modernist legacy of the “ structural” filmmakers of the 1970s. Friedrich's ability to synthesize the stylistic and conceptual legacy of avant-garde film practice with an analytical sense of human experience makes her exemplary of the evolution of American experimental film practice from the 1980s to the present.
adapted from Senses of Cinema
Selected Filmography
Hot Water (1978)
Cool Hands, Warm Heart (1979)
Scar Tissue (1979)
I Suggest Mine (1980)
Gently Down the Stream (1981)
But No One (1982)
The Ties That Bind (1984)
First Comes Love (1991)
Rules of the Road (1993)
Lesbian Avengers Eat Fire (1994)
The Odds of Recovery (2002)
Additional screening as part of Outfest 25th Anniversary Series
Wednesday, March 21, 7:30pm
Spielberg Theatre at the Egyptian Theater
See outfest.org for additional information.
Damned If You Don't
(1987, 42 min, b/w 16mm)
In Damned If You Don’t (Outfest 1988) Su Friedrich investigates the themes and connections between women, sexuality, personal relationships and religion in an innovative and graceful film that addresses a taboo subject: a young nun and her sexual attraction to another woman. Winner of the OUTstanding Documentary Feature.
Hide and Seek
(1996, 65 min., b&w, 16mm)
Hide and Seek explores the fertile terrain of lesbian childhood and prepubescence in a 12-year-old girl living in Brooklyn in the mid 1960s.
