Su Friedrich's Sink or Swim

The dynamics of a particular father daughter relationship are explored through the media of black and white film in Su Friedrich’s Sink or Swim. The piece consists almost entirely of short narratives of scenes starting from her early childhood on up through her adult life. Interwoven are breaks from the autobiography to the biography of the father’s childhood. The entire dialog is a voice over which emphasizes the biographical nature of the piece. An interesting break in this was when the narrative was taken over by the typewriter in which a letter is being written to the father.

The story begins with the exploration of the daughter’s childhood experiences and her oblivion to the family problems that would later be presented to us. This is most exemplified by the narrative retelling a story where the mo...