Su Friedrich came out with this avant garde film, chronicling the story of a girl and the issues with her father as she got older. It is black and white, narrated by a little girl, and quite ambiguous as to whether this is self-reflexive or not.
Without reading anything about the film, I took away that it was a documentary because the filmmaker started inserting herself into the film as the character became more of an adult. At Emerson I’ve spent a lot of time focusing on documentary, but I really haven’t wanted to completely isolate myself from the narrative world.
The way Friedrich created this film really gives me a place to start off (much like Man on Wire) to see how I could marry the world of narrative and documentary. I haven’t really ironed it out, but there’s something about thinking back to those old days in film school where I was given 5 film chits for 16mm film of my choosing and being told to make a movie. I miss the creative parts, not the long hours, but I don’t want to leave that aspect of my work out.