Sink or Swim

Su Friedrich's 1990 experimental documentary is made of twenty-six short sections. A girl describes her father, her family and work; the sections are ordered from the end of the alphabet back to the beginning and each turns on a single word. The narration is in the third person. The girl speaks of herself as someone else, and that distance carries the weight of what is told without stating it; the images are mostly old family films and footage that seems unrelated. The father is an academic who put his career ahead of his family. Friedrich neither accuses nor defends him; two portraits emerge together and the viewer makes the connection. The film is sixteen millimetre and black and white. Who it's for: those who like experimental documentary and autobiographical cinema. Who it's not for: viewers expecting direct storytelling; the film deliberately holds its sound and image apart.