Gut Renovation
Su Friedrich
In the late 1980s, various artists moved into the New York working-class neighbourhood of Williamsburg which, at the time, was still populated by small manufacturers, Polish butchers, and auto repair shops etc. If SoHo took 30 years to evolve from an artists’ bohemia to an art gallery hotspot, to an outdoor shopping mall, Williamsburg’s demise was much faster – due in part to a 2005 zoning law change.
With a jaundiced eye and a combination of wit, anger and political savvy, film-maker Su Friedrich records how the neighbourhood has changed from when she arrived in the 1980s to the rich-hipster haven it has now become: she hovers on the sleek granite kitchen counters featured at the condo openings she attends; she paints ironic graffiti on construction fences; she comments wryly on her new neighbours; she captures each demolition on film.
Awards for ›Gut Renovation‹
Audience Award, Brooklyn International Film Festival 2012
Film programme A Better Life
Su Friedrich
Su Friedrich has played a pivotal role in shaping lesbian independent cinema in the United States with her films. She is always interested in current media debates, which she reflects on in her films. Inherent in many of her films is an auto-ethnographic perspective. Her works are shown in exhibitions and at festivals and have already been celebrated in 23 retrospectives, including the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Rotterdam Film Festival, the National Film Theatre in London and the First Tokyo Lesbian and Gay Film Festival. Friedrich’s films are part of the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, the Art Institute Chicago, the Royal Film Archive Belgium, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress, and others.
Films by Su Friedrich (Selection)
Cinetracts5/10/20 2020 | Edited by: the Companion Film, version 22019 | Edited by: the Companion Film, version 1 2018 |I cannot tell you how I feel2016 | Queen Takes Pawn2013 | Gut Renovation 2012 | Practice Makes Perfect2012 | From the Ground Up 2008 | Seeing Red 2005 | The Head of a Pin 2004
