Su Friedrich

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. (imdb)

An experimental portrayal of forbidden desire between a young nun and another woman.

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. (Su Friedrich)

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. (ubu.com)

The Ties That Bind is an experimental documentary about the film maker's mother, who was born and lived in southern Germany from 1920-1950. (imdb)

The film doesn't attempt to defend--or discredit--the institution of marriage. Instead, it reveals the many subtle emotions surrounding the event, and raises questions about how the double standard regarding marriage affects gay and straight couples. (imdb)

Rules of the Road tells the story of a love affair and its demise through one of the primary objects shared by the couple: an old beige station wagon with fake wood paneling along the sides. 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. (Su Friedrich)

Mixes documentary interviews of memories of lesbian adolescence with the story of the 12-year-old girl Lou discovering her sexuality in 1960s America. (imdb)

The film begins with a series of events on a crowded outdoor market street. Women on stages perform "private" rituals: shaving legs and armpits, fixing their hair, etc. A woman tries to disrupt their "work." She struggles to set herself apart from them, to resist the forces of habit, but gradually becomes more involved than she is willing to admit... (imdb)

Filmmaker Su Friedrich takes viewers on a visually enlightening journey from Guatemala to the United States, breaking down the process of coffee production one step at a time, from crop growth, to harvest, to processing and, finally, distribution. Spartan in its use of dialogue, the film makes a powerful statement not only about working conditions and the need for fair trade with the developing world, but about our consumer culture as a whole. (netflix)

A documentary of small changes evolves into an historical record of New York. The resulting film is an essayistic requiem for a neighborhood and an entire way of life; it also provides a case study of the rapid gentrification of our cities. In 2005 this former industrial zone was designated a residential area and the factories, manufacturers and artists' lofts were priced out by property speculators lured by tax breaks. (sufriedrich.com)

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. (su friedrich)

After a twenty-year period of multiple illnesses and injuries, filmmaker Su Friedrich turns the camera on herself as a way to analyze her chances for a happier, healthier life. (amazon.com)

The Head of a Pin reveals the awkward ruminations of the filmmaker and her friends as they attempt to learn about nature. Starting out as an examination of the differences between urban and rural life, between the daily grind and summer vacations, the film turns unexpectedly into a portrait of what happens when city dwellers encounter a country spider. (imdb)

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! (imdb)

A dream that was "left over" from 'Gently Down the Stream'. Like many dreams, it transformed the familiar world into something more disturbing, contradictory and amoral. [IMDB]