In her latest film, avant-garde queer filmmaker Su Friedrich has used her camera as a tool to observe her surroundings in Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood for the past six years. Today (2022), one of many films screening in Lower Manhattan starting this week, debunks the popular slogan of “living in the moment,” characterizing it as accepting what is right in front of us rather than seeking wonders. rooted.
“Filming for Today had looser origins,” Friedrich said. Hyperallergic. “What can I see on any given day that I react to, that makes me happy, that makes me aware of life events. There was no particular place to go or activity to film.
In a partial retrospective to celebrate the new film’s premiere in New York, Today will be screened nightly from Friday, March 17 through Thursday, March 23 at the DCTV Firehouse Cinema for Documentary Film, with each screening followed by one of Friedrich’s selected shorts. Friedrich will participate in a Q&A on Friday and Sunday evening and will be present at most screenings.
Today will be presented with five of Friedrich’s early films spanning three decades (1980s to 2000s). Frederic said Hyperallergic that she chose her 13-minute 16mm film “Gently Down the Stream” (1981) to accompany Today during the opening night to illustrate the path traveled since her debut as a director. “It’s one of my first films, black and white, silent, very experimental, and one that had a huge impact when I released it,” Friedrich said, saying it was the first film who “put her on the map”.
In “Seeing Red” (2005), screening on Sunday March 19, Friedrich uses video diary entries, colorful montages, and music as mediums to document and unfold her internal monologue about navigating life’s frustrations as a woman and an artist. The 27-minute digital color video is described as one of Friedrich’s most personal works to date, sewing the humor of incongruity into the fabric of existential cynicism.
“Rules of the Road” (1993) will follow Today Saturday March 18 and Wednesday March 22. The 16mm color film explores the symbolism, both personal and societal, of the beige station wagon with faux wood panels as a point of contention in a lesbian couple’s dissolved relationship. Friedrich’s voiceover reflects on post-breakup feelings as the camera pans from break to break in a deliberately curated frequency skew in early 90s New York, overlaid with popular music of the time. Music plays an equally important role in the filmmaker’s 16mm black and white film “First Comes Love” (1991) which follows four wedding ceremonies and the various emotions left in their wake. “First Comes Love” will screen on Tuesday, March 21.
Friedrich said that the structure of Today has a close relationship to that of his 2004 film, “The Head of a Pin”, which explores how city intelligence falters in the face of a bucolic lifestyle. “La tête d’épin” will be screened on Sunday March 20 and Thursday March 23.
“Almost all of my work stems from my own experiences, and all of it is filmed alike – by me – of things happening ‘in the world,’” Friedrich said. “But a big difference with Today is the extent to which I use on-screen (and voice-over) text.
Ticket sales are live for each evening on the DCTV Firehouse Cinema Websitepriced at $16 for general viewers and $8 for members.
