Su Friedrich: Reappropriations

Abstract

It's not unusual these days for those who have followed the history of North American avantgarde film to complain that the great days of Movement are over, that important avant-garde film-makers are no longer coming onto the cinema scene. While this attitude is definitely not one I share, I notice that even those who announce such views make certain exceptions. Perhaps the most frequent of these is Su Friedrich.' Su Friedrich has earned the respect of those who have lost patience for avant-garde cinema, despite the fact that she's made relatively few films: Hot Water, 1978; Scar Tissue, 1979; Cool Hands Warm Heart, 1979; I Suggest Mine, 1980; Gently Down the Stream, 1981; But No One, 1982; The Ties That Bind, 1984; and Damned If You Don't, 1987. Her acceptance may seem strange until one sees Gently Down the Stream, The Ties That Bind, and Damned If You Don't. These three films reveal combination of formal inventiveness and moral courage which has characterized most of the avant-garde film-makers who have been considered major figures.2 Gently Down the Stream combines extensive hand-scratched texts and photographed imagery. In program note for the film, Friedrich explains that the texts are a succession of fourteen dreams taken from eight years of my journals. They were shuffled out of their original chronological order for the purpose of coherence and because often we know/dream some-