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SU FRIEDRICH DISCUSSES WOMEN AND FILM
By MARY KATE VARNAU, Daily Arts Writer, Michigan Daily News, October
24, 2005
Su Friedrich has tackled extremely personal issues in her films
since she began working in the medium in 1978: "The Ties that
Bind" focused on her mother, while "Sink or Swim"
explored her relationship with her father; another featured a fictionalized
breakup. But "The Odds of Recovery," screened last Thursday
as part of the Screen Arts and Cultures Department's Woman Filmmaker
Series, has exposed her in a way that none of the others did.
"It was very hard to make," Friedrich said, cigarette
in hand outside the Modern Languages Buliding. "I guess for
most of my filmmaking career, I have been determined not to use
myself so directly - not to use my voice, not to be on camera -
and there was no way around it with this film. So I suddenly had
to get around that hurtle."
In "The Odds of Recovery," Friedrich takes center stage
and documents her recent spate of a number of health problems. Over
the years, she's tallied many surgeries and treatments, including
a hormonal imbalance affecting her sex drive that leads to the deterioration
of a long-term relationship.
The film, which was made without an actual crew, tags along to
a mammogram, examinations and appointments with breast-cancer specialists.
Set on the counter, the camera almost becomes another character
in the film - an impartial viewer who records her frustrations with
everything from her treatment to the way that the surgical gown
ties up.
At first, Friedrich felt uncomfortable with how much "The Odds
of Recovery" revealed as the movie speaks openly about her
health issues and sexual problems, even exposing her physically
throughout.
But that's the point, she says. "If I am willing to do it
in a public venue, then I feel like I can give other people the
opportunity to think about themselves."
Friedrich hopes that the film will encourage women to think about
their health and speak out about problems that people tend to keep
private. "One of the big issues running through the film is
this hormone imbalance I've had. It devastated me for a number of
years. But after a new drug became available and I was able to deal
with it, I realized that this is not a commonly known medical issue.
Part of making the film is thinking, 'If I show this a lot and women
see it who have the problem, they'll learn something from it and
be able to help themselves.' "
Women's issues are a central concern in Friedrich's films, which
have recently been digitally remastered and released in a five-volume
collection. But she doesn't want to be defined by her gender in
her professional life. "I wouldn't mind being called a 'woman
filmmaker' if every male filmmaker was called a 'man filmmaker.'
Women have been trailblazing in so many parts of film history,"
she said.
"But the risk is that we keep being ghettoized. Men get treated
like the norm and women or filmmakers of other ethnicities get treated
like the other. The same holds true for being called a 'lesbian
filmmaker.' On some level, I think that all of these categories
don't really make sense."
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