“Damned If You Don’t” is Friedrich’s subversive and ecstatic response to her Catholic upbringing. Blending conventional narrative technique with impressionistic camerawork, symbols and voice-overs, this film creates an intimate study of sexual expression and repression. Featuring Peggy Healey as a young nun tormented by her desire for the sultry irresistible Ela Troyano. Languages: English, German PLUS BONUS FILMS: RULES OF THE ROAD 31 minutes, Color, USA, 1993, 16mm RULES OF THE ROAD is the story of a love affair and its demise through one of the objects shared by the couple: an old beige station wagon with fake wood paneling. Through spoken text, popular music and images from the streets of New York, RULES OF THE ROAD takes a somewhat whimsical, somewhat caustic look at how our dreams of freedom, pleasure, security, and family are so often symbolized by the automobile. FIRST COMES LOVE 22 minutes, B&W, USA, 1991, 16mm Friedrich’s film is a sumptuous and deeply felt examination of the timeless ritual of marriage. Gorgeous footage of four traditional weddings captures the emotional ambiguities of a cultural event with which everyone is familiar. What they’re saying: DAMNED IF YOU DON’T “DAMNED IF YOU DON’T is a real prize. Beautifully shot in black and white, it blends conventional narrative technique with impressionistic camerawork, symbols and voice-overs to create an intimate study of sexual expression and repression. The film is as hypnotic as a dream.” – Andrew Rasanen, BAY WINDOWS “The film energizes feminist deconstruction by locating it within a context of at least two forms of (redirected) film pleasure: the excitement of melodramatic narrative and the sensuous enjoyment of cinematic texture, rhythm and structure.” – Scott MacDonald, FILM QUARTERLY “Passionate, genuinely innovative…a lyrical evocation of the mystery of memory and the development of sexual identity.” – Amy Taubin THE VILLAGE VOICE RULES OF THE ROAD “…the light, almost whimsical tone of the film should not blind us to the part of it that is irreducibly personal. Station wagons are everywhere; everybody’s got a sad love story. But only one filmmaker, to my knowledge, has Su Friedrich’s eye….With Rules of the Road, she creates a film like a perfect short story.” – Stuart Klawans, THE NATION “A study of the kind of separation anxiety that never makes it to the therapist, a funeral parade for a love that gets comically, and ironically, stuck in traffic.” – Susan Gerhard, SAN FRANCISCO BAY GUARDIAN FIRST COMES LOVE “Friedrich is able to convey a very complicated range of emotions with incredible precision. You want to get married, you’re freaked out by marriage. Gay or straight, you’re blown away!” – Sarah Schulman, Author, After Delores “Throughout, Friedrich keeps a gracious distance, building a critique that doesn’t patronize the very real, very naked emotion she captures. A virtuoso of clarity, Friedrich recasts the personal as political, makes the public curiously intimate.” – Manohla Dargis, THE VILLAGE VOICE
Filter Films
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“The Ties That Bind” is a powerful meditation on political responsibility and personal loss as seen through the story of the filmmaker’s mother, who grew up in Nazi Germany. Using rare archival footage, extensive interviews and critical commentary, Friedrich constructs a fearless dialogue between past and present, between mother and daughter. “The Ties That Bind” engages in a profound search for an understanding of history, and challenges us in our responsibility for the present. Languages: English, German * New Directors/New Films, MoMA * “Le Mois du Film Documentaire,” France * “In and Out of the Cold, 1945 to 1995,” International Documentary Congress * “Filmer l’Histoire,” Centre Georges Pompidou * Flaherty Film Seminar; Salsomaggiore Film and TV Festival * Festival of New York Independent Films in Haifa, Tel Aviv and Jerusalem * “1945-1985: Women and Resistance,” Amsterdam “THE TIES THAT BIND is one of the most moving and profound films about the mother-daughter relationship. Blending documentary and experimental modes, Friedrich investigates her mother’s background as a German citizen during WWII–an issue that has vexed her daughter during her youth. While her mother is shown on-screen and is heard acoustically, the filmmaker remains “silent” but voices her thoughts through titles scratched into the film emulsion. In so doing, Friedrich creates a beautiful and powerful film in the tradition of Michelle Citron’s earlier DAUGHTER RITE.” – Lucy Fischer, Professor, UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH “The best of New Directors/New Films.… The film is an original, a moving and courageous tribute from a child to a mother’s beleaguered memory.” – David Edelstein, VILLAGE VOICE “On every level, Friedrich’s films are resonant with thought and craft.” – Scott MacDonald, FILM QUARTERLY PLUS BONUS FEATURE FILM: THE LESBIAN AVENGERS EAT FIRE, TOO a film by Su Friedrich, co-directed by Janet Baus 55 minutes, color, USA, 1993, Video This film documents the first year of actions by The Lesbian Avengers, a group of bold and brazen New York City activists fighting for recognition and equal rights for lesbians everywhere. We recruit!
Films of Su Friedrich, The: Volume 1 – The Ties That Bind
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Digitally re-mastered from the original 16mm negatives, this collection of 13 films is essential for every library or media centre, as well as women’s and cinema studies programs. Since the 1970s, Friedrich’s skillful mix of experimental narrative and documentary forms, filled with provocative feminist and lesbian themes, has made her a groundbreaking member of the avant-garde film community and a pivotal force in the establishment of Queer Cinema. This collection of DVDs includes the filmmaker’s classic works such as SINK OR SWIM, HIDE AND SEEK, THE TIES THAT BIND, DAMNED IF YOU DON’T, and THE ODDS OF RECOVERY, as well as eight bonus films. Special features: Digitally re-mastered from the original 16mm negatives, 8 Bonus Films, Multiple Languages (on selected titles), Scene Selections, Filmography, and Production Credits. For additional information about each of the volumes, please see the individual volumes: Volume 1 THE TIES THAT BIND (55 mins, 1984) A powerful and meditative film on the political responsibility and personal loss as seen through the story of the filmmaker’s mother who grew up in Nazi Germany. with Bonus Films: THE LESBIAN AVENGERS EAT FIRE, TOO, co-directed with Janet Baus (55 mins, 1993) This film documents the first year of actions by The Lesbian Avengers, a group of bold and brazen New York City activists fighting for recognition and equal rights for lesbians. Volume 2 DAMNED IF YOU DON’T (42 mins, 1987) Friedrich’s subversive and ecstatic response to her Catholic upbringing. with Bonus Films: RULES OF THE ROAD (31 mins, 1993) The story of a lesbian love affair and its eventual demise. FIRST COMES LOVE (22 mins, 1991) A sumptuous and deeply felt examination of love and marriage. Volume 3 SINK OR SWIM (48 mins, 1990) 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. with Bonus Films: COOL HANDS, WARM HEART (16 mins, 1979) A study in performance, voyeurism and the spectator. Private acts become public spectacles on a stage in a crowded street as women perform the familiar rituals of daily life. SCAR TISSUE (6 mins, 1979) “Scar Tissue” uses two sets of images of men and women in midtown Manhattan, and is structured so as to reproduce what is essential in the original event but also to undermine the original event. Volume 4 HIDE AND SEEK (65 mins, 1996) The story of Lou, a twelve-year-old girl coming to terms with her budding sexuality in the mid 1960s. with Bonus Films: GENTLY DOWN THE STREAM (14 mins, 1981) “Gently Down the Stream” can be described about as easily as you can hold on to a handful of water. BUT NO ONE (9 mins, 1982) The visual material of “But No One” corresponds to the waking world of the filmmaker, but it is cast in the form of a dream. Volume 5 THE ODDS OF RECOVERY (65 mins, 2002) Friedrich turns the camera on herself as a way to analyze her chances for a happier, healthier life. with Bonus Film: THE HEAD OF A PIN (21 mins, 2004) The Head of a Pin reveals the awkward ruminations of the filmmaker and her friends as they attempt to learn about nature.
Films of Su Friedrich, The: Volumes 1-5
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“Dish” is a unique documentary series created by David Quantic. Fast-paced editing and eye-popping graphics fuse together interviews with fans of popular culture to create a “chorus” of enthusiastic opinions. In this debut episode, 6 gay men talk about their obsession with Oprah.
Dish
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“The way it usually goes down is like this – the greater the weight, the better it feels. When it hurts, nothing feels better to me than hurting a bit more.” – Dana Michel We live in a world where people will fall. The film plays with the idea of falling – the heaviness and the lightness, the emotion, and the sounds associated with falling. It reflects on moments when one stumbles… by accident, on purpose. Sometimes you can get up again right away and you’re fine, and sometimes you’re not. A young woman (Dana Michel) is in a rebellious dance, at times expressing of a kind of living schizophrenia. For her the only way to properly articulate all of the rising internal feelings and questions is to dance. For this woman it means propelling her body forward and back. The texture of the dance is abrasive, even naked. It’s a violence that can excite. We are reminded in this dance-film that rough physicality can be beautiful…and quite different from the way in which violence is typically defined. “The greater the weight” mixes confrontational, intensely physical dance and music (by Ghislain Poirier) that explodes with poetry, drive and vulnerability. The aim is to deliver the impact of bodily shock, with a terse, probing intelligence. Out of the dissonance emerges a dance that is feminine, athletic, full of attitude – loud, honest, and direct. The film aspires to move viewers into a familiar yet uncomfortable place.
Greater the Weight, The
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“But Some Are Brave” is an innovative, multi-layered animated film project. This short poetic chronicle uses an oil paint-on-glass animation technique. It introduces iconic characters and historic events in a flurry of emotional and psychological rhythms. Using the metaphor and symbolic structural device of weaving, “But Some Are Brave” takes us through this visual poem like a spindle flying through layers of thread – telling us something of the cultural and political histories of communities under attack. Awards: Audience Award for Best Film, TAIS Animation Showcase, Toronto, 2009; Prix du publique for Best Animated Film, Cineffable Festival, Paris, 2009
But Some Are Brave
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Two male blow-up dolls become puppets in this short. Not only is one of the men out of air, but both of them are tragically out of synch with one another.
Ache
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“Michael Wallin’s ‘Decodings’ is a profoundly moving, allegorical search for identity from the documents of collective memory, in this case, found footage from the ’40s and ’50s … The search for self ends in aching poignancy with stills of a boy and his mother at the kitchen table, catching the moment that marks the dawning of anguish and loss; desire becomes imprinted on that which was long ago.” – Manohla Dargis, Village Voice “‘Decodings’ is a magical, seamless work that manages to beguile even as it probes areas tender to the touch. Its tale is beautifully told…” – Patrick Hoctel, San Francisco Weekly “Explodes with Buñuel’s sensuousness and Hitchcockian narrative irony…” – Doug Sadownick, Los Angeles Weekly “Wallin’s achievement in ‘Decodings’ is to create a powerfully inventive work that conveys with dramatic intensity strong feelings of remembrance and loss from images that have been extracted from the culture… Wallin has succeeded in creating from various film sources a work that emphasizes the fragility and ultimate vulnerability of human expression and relationships.” John G, Hanhardt, Whitney Biennial Catalogue, 1989
Decodings
