Response
to film Sink or Swim by Sue Friedrich
Su Friedrich’s Sink or Swim is a film that doesn't fit into any
single category or genre. It can be described as Friedrich's relationship
with her father. It can also be seen as a personal statement about the
exploration of gender roles. Sink or Swim presents itself with an attainable
narration spoken by a young girl, which stylistically demonstrates a
sense of nostalgia. The film involves the rest of her family and her
growing independence as well, and could just as well be called an autobiography.
The autobiographical
conception can be seen during the sequence when a white page reads across
the top "The American Kinship System". This "system"
begins to form a family tree beginning with "Husband," "Wife,"
and several children. But on the same chart there is a "Wife #2,"
"Wife #3," while more children appear. While standard ancestral
charts often show multiple marriages, Friedrich's progressive presentation
of her own family history makes it seem humorously absurd.
Toward
the end, a typewriter is seen in negative typing out a letter from Friedrich
to her father. The soundtrack, instead of the young girl’s voice,
we hear the typewriter keys, giving the section an aggressive directness
that most of the other sections lack. In the letter, she describes her
mother's loneliness after her father left the family. Her mother would
hurry the children to bed each evening, and then while alone, listen
to her favorite Schubert song. Friedrich explains in her letter that
she only recently learned the translation of the lyrics. She describes
a woman who longs for her absent lover and feels she can't live without
him.
Sink or
Swim crosses several genres and contains a variety of forms, so the
film as a whole can be taken in several ways. It is an autobiographical
film about Friedrich’s father, as well as the ending makes clear,
it is also a letter to her father, a larger version of the letter we
see her type in the film, which she ends by typing "P.S. I wish
I could mail you this letter." The film is a letter she cannot
send. A letter filled with blame, criticism, anger, but also appreciation,
even love.