Su Friedrich, In Brief
A filmmaker personalizing the political.

Focus on Film

Friedrich: The Odds of Recovery

JUNE 3, 2005. Su Friedrich began making films in 1978 and began garnering attention in 1979 with "Cool Hands, Warm Heart." Her 1981 work, "Gently Down The Stream," was a cinematic breakthrough, evoking a lesbian dreamscape drawn from her actual diary via a formal tour de force of structure and technique.

In her narrative, often documentary films, Friedrich personalizes the political using both found and created images. In her 1984 film, "The Ties That Bind," newspaper headlines and newsreels are part of the mix as Friedrich centers her German-born mother in the midst of World War II Germany, contemporary European history, and U.S. politics.

In "Sink or Swim" (1990), Friedrich re-imagines her lesbian childhood using a combination of fictional techniques and documentary interviews, many of them activists she worked with in the direct action group the Lesbian Avengers.

"The Odds of Recovery," the 2002 work excerpted in The Gully, details the filmmaker's long series of health problems, the saga of her passage through the sacred halls of medicine, and the battle to embrace her own troublesome body.

From the Web

• Su Friedrich homepage: Filmmography & more
• Su Friedrich