Author: Doc Studies

“I think you have to start at home,” says Su Friedrich about her avant-garde body of work in which the personal becomes political and universal. In her new documentary film Gut Renovation, Friedrich’s ‘at home’ attitude extends to her neighborhood of Williamsburg where she takes gentrification personally in a fierce, provocative, oppositional look at the effect of real estate development on a once traditional working-class community and artists’ turf.
A formally elegant filmmaker, known for her wit and visceral imagery, Friedrich is the recipient of numerous awards including Guggenheim and Rockefeller fellowships, the Grand prix at the Melbourne Film Festival and retrospectives worldwide. She is the writer, cinematographer, director and editor of all but one of her eighteen works. Among her most celebrated are Sink or Swim, The Ties That Bind and First Comes Love.

What we talk about when we talk about editing. Renowned editor Jonathan Oppenheim (Paris is Burning, Arguing the World, Sister Helen, and the upcoming Andre Gregory: Before and After Dinner) screened and discussed the ways in which he worked with director Laura Poitras to create a framework and context for the post 9/11 film The Oath. Oppenheim’s psychological approach to shaping character in documentary has won him a Peabody, an Oscar nomination and the Sundance Grand Jury Prize.

“I think you have to start at home,” says Su Friedrich about her avant-garde body of work in which the personal becomes political and universal.  Continue reading “Doc Talk with Su Friedrich — Gut Renovation” →