Oh SF...

Sink or Swim(dir. Su Friedrich)
Her films are intensely personal but are capable of sucking you in in an empathetic reverie. I've probably used this description before, but they really do play out like an intimate diary or journal entry that would be difficult to reveal to anybody due to how exposed emotionally they are. Much like some of her films, this film is her trying to come to terms with some aspect in her life and in this film, that would be her relationship with her largely absent father. Even though her films are intensely personal, she hardly ever presents the "story" as if it were her own. It could be anybody's story and she strives for a universality by focusing on the emotions instead of the details. The voice-over is detailed about certain events and memories about her father, but the main appeal is the emotions the voice-over conveys to the audience. It's almost cold and detached yet it's actually fiercely alive and emotional. Her poetic sensibility is immensely appealing to me so me labeling this as a masterpiece isn't that big of a surprise. It's a masterpiece.
**** out of ****
Cool Hands, Warm Heart(dir. Su Friedrich)
Images of women in the street protesting against the patriarchal society we live in by shaving their legs and armpits in public, cutting their hair, and skinning apples? The skinning apples didn't make all that much sense. Maybe it's supposed to represent how that particular woman feels being on a tiny stage, essentially exposing herself in public in an emotional sense. A woman eventually grabs her hand and takes her an arcade to have some fun(no, not sexual fun, get your mind out of the gutter). What does all this mean? This seems to be one of her more outspoken "message" films even though there's nothing didactic at all about it in the traditional sense with her evocative imagery and "storytelling." I feel what it's trying to convey is that feminism, especially of the lesbian sort, aims to create an environment where individuals can freely love without traditional gender rules, but the individuals trying to achieve this goal are also unable to love given the amount of time and energy they put into their effort. As the central woman is taken away by this unknown woman, there's a sense of liberation. As they have fun in the arcade, you can see that this is the protesters' vision of paradise and their ultimate goal. While my description probably makes it sound shittier than it really is, it's actually profoundly moving and thought-provoking unlike pseudo-feminist trash like The Vagina Monologues. It's another masterpiece.
**** out of ****
Scar Tissue(dir. Su Friedrich)
Another one of her more "message"-driven films and a little more heavy-handed or at least stretched compared to her other films of this type. Thankfully, it's not as bad as Lesbian Avengers Eat Fire, Too(I blame her co-director for everything that was wrong with that film). While it's duration is only 6 minutes, it's hard not to say that it feels a tad overlong even if it took me about half that time to figure out what she was trying to convey. The film is composed of images of men and woman in dress attire and the editing is much like a flicker film(or at least my understanding of them from what I've read). She conveys to the audience the unfairness of "acceptable" dress attire for men and woman. Men are able to wear suits and pants while woman must wear uncomfortable high-heels and skirts. While this thought is sound, it's not a particularly insightful one. It's probably the most subtle protest I've ever seen and I do agree with what she's saying, it just doesn't make all that great cinema. I still recommend.
*** out of ****