Su Friedrich — Director (11)

Movie

Scar Tissue (1979)
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Scar Tissue by Su Friedrich is a filmic version of a white canvas or a silent music piece.The fact that Friedrich never really shows the whole body, but rather plays off of body parts could be read as a desire to show less of the people on the screen, so that the viewer's reading can be generalized. If the "characters" existed as people, the images would inevitably read to be telling a story about these people. The legs and torsos do not signify people; it is the experience of these body parts and the rhythm with which they are portrayed that constitute the work.

Movie

The Odds of Recovery (2002)
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After a twenty year period of multiple illnesses and injuries, the filmmaker turns the camera on herself as a way to analyze her chances for a happier, healthier life. In the process, she captures the frustration, tedium and petty annoyances of a revolving-door relationship with the medical establishment, while portraying the complicated web of emotions that accompany any medical problem. With humor and honesty, The Odds of Recovery uses the filmmaker's medical history as a means to address a perennial human problem: the desire to avoid conflict and deny the need for radical change.

Movie

Cool Hands, Warm Heart (1979)
Cool Hands, Warm Heart Douban
other title: 冰冷的手,温暖的心
影片纪录女孩们在街头架设的舞台上进行「私密仪式」的过程:除脚毛、腋毛、梳整头发。当身体的私密性公开成为供以众人检视观看的视觉奇观,不禁让人质疑社会对女性身体规范的合理性。本片以八厘米底片拍摄,将街头摄影与前卫电影的魅力加以融合,形塑成一种原创性极高的创作,并把纽约下东区街头置换为得以让不受拘束的女人们狂奔乱窜的自由领地。

Movie

Damned If You Don't (1987)
Damned If You Don't WikiData IMDb TMDB Douban
other title: 修女日记
It begins with footage from a stylish old potboiler about an isolated convent, whose tale of passions leashed and unleashed provides the leitmotif for a young lesbian who watches it and the lonely nun she pursues and seduces. As the two women's lives come closer to joining, voiceovers from the biography of a 16th century lesbian nun and the reminiscences of a woman's closeted romances at a Catholic school flesh out the theme.

Movie

Gut Renovation (2013)
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other title: 大胆革新 / 胆量再造
'Gut Renovation' charts the destruction of Williamsburg - a neighborhood in Brooklyn, NY - after the city passed a re-zoning plan in 2005 which allowed developers to build luxury condos where there were once thriving industries, working-class families, and artists. The filmmaker lived in the neighborhood for 20 years and was one of the many who were forced out by the changes that occurred.

Movie

Sink or Swim (1990)
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other title: 浮沉 / 沉浮
Through a series of twenty six short stories, a girl describes 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. Together, they create a formally complex and emotionally intense film.

Movie

Seeing Red (2005)
Seeing Red IMDb TMDB Douban
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?

Movie

Rules of the Road (1993)
Rules of the Road Douban
other title: 公路规则
恋爱关系结束后,恋人曾共同拥有的往往成为过去美好回忆的象征。一台车经历关系的存在与消亡,车不再只是车,我们也不再是我们了,路上四处可见的家庭用旅行车便成了心中挥之不去的梦魇。片中穿插纽约街头影像和流行音乐,速写出人们对车子所寄托的关于自由、归属感、恋情和家的想象。

Movie

Gently Down the Stream (1981)
Gently Down the Stream IMDb TMDB Douban
other title: 悠游而下
GENTLY DOWN THE STREAM is constructed from fourteen dreams taken from eight years' worth of my journals. The text is scratched directly on to the film so that you hear your own voice as you read. The accompanying images of women, water, animals and saints were chosen for their indirect but potent correspondence to the text.