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THE ODDS OF RECOVERY
a film by Su Friedrich
65 minutes, Color, USA, 2002, 16mm
Languages: English and Spanish
After a twenty year period of multiple illnesses and injuries, Friedrich
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.
PLUS BONUS FILM:
 THE
HEAD OF A PIN
a film by Su Friedrich
21 minutes, Color, USA, 2004, Video
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, the film turns unexpectedly into a wry portrait of what happens
when city dwellers encounter a country spider.
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what
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THE
ODDS OF RECOVERY
“…plays with the genre of the
self-portrait…all in interwoven layers of narrative…allows
us to see a life and a relationship through these transparent
and yet illuminating layers.”
Brian Kiteley English & Creative
Writing, DUKE UNIVERSITY
“Friedrich makes flinty and form-minded,
extremely pragmatic, highly personal, affecting movies.”
J. Hoberman THE VILLAGE VOICE
“Friedrich’s latest feature
takes a sometimes discomfiting but engrossing, good-humored
look at her own long history of medical problems…Deftly
assembled pic captures the frustration, tedium and petty annoyances
of a revolving-door relationship with medical practitioners…”Recovery”
[also] nicely limns the satisfaction brought by creativity
in the kitchen and garden, with latter’s seasonal changes
providing an overall conceptual frame…Nearly one-woman
package is confidently assembled, with plenty of hands-on
authorial flavor.”
Dennis Harvey, VARIETY
“Over the years, Friedrich has blazed
a path for a different kind of filmmaking—and a different
kind of filmgoing experience. Lyrical, poetic, passionate
and innovative, Friedrich’s films are among the most
rewarding cinematic delicacies you’ll ever find.”
Jenni Olson, BAY AREA REPORTER
"...the deft interplay of voices, words
and images creates a steady accretion of metaphors and insights
that are sharp and multilayered. While Friedrich effectively
critiques Western medicine and demonstrates exhilarating filmmaking
skills, its true achievement is as self-portraiture, boldly
revealing a woman in all her difficult, naked complexity.
"
Holly Willis, LA WEEKLY
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