Roberta Friedman

Roberta's great aunt Bertha had 7 children and 13 grandchildren. This film is a portrait of 6 of the surviving grandchildren.

A short documentary following five teenage girls who share their thoughts on music and being a musician. This documentary is included as a special feature on the 2003 Barbie of Swan Lake DVD.

Initially the subject of this film was the multiple threats constantly implicit in cinema ... especially in the perceptual acts of unifying with which we respond to the discontinuities of editing. So the basic images were knives and salamis. But as the music was reworked, highly charged objects began to appear and reappear; instinctual navigation took over, as always, in the editing room ... and the film seemed to adopt another subject entirely. As in all our work, many issues are in uneasy balance, and the film refuses to find a center. Words in the film refer to its own intertextuality. Who is speaking here? And who is addressed?

A virtuosic study of sync-sound cinema, Cagean organizational strategies, and montage. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2009.

First the Beaulieu documentation of the shoot, then the Arri footage, the porn loop, and the reprise. VT was shown from 1979–1981, with Jim Fulkerson performing on amplified trombone before the screen. Juan Carlos Kase discussed VT in “Alternative Projections.” Part of his essay, read by the author, is included. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2011.

Future Perfect is an early algorithmic film, based on a collection of decreasing mathematical series that produce visual and auditory rhythms beyond the control of the filmmakers. (Grahame Weinbren) Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2007.

A film dealing with time and depth, a film that manipulates the properties of film (color, shape, movement, etc.) and that operates on a quiet level, one of repetition and minutes variations.

The juxtaposition of the Schumann cello piece, the performer's voice, and the film is entirely his idea, and we are still surprised at the strength and unity achieved by the superimposition of these three rather different elements.

This is a double projection piece which takes advantage of the inconsistencies of ordinary 16mm projectors: it is almost impossible to find two that run at precisely the same speed. The rhythmic patterns of each of the two films are identical, but new patterns are created as the two machines drift further and further apart.

1973, 16mm, 00:12:30

The words in this short film are taken from Gertrude Stein's "The Making of Americans."