A film about six surgeries, one bad hormone problem, a fifteen-year relationship and the onset of middle age. Acclaimed filmmaker of "SINK OR SWIM" and "HIDE & SEEK", Su Friedrich documents her personal journey through a multitude of often unexplained illnesses and the problems she faces while encountering the medical establishment. Both poignant and funny, this intimate portrait records the temporal pleasures of life, middle age and fears of death.
The journey through an exasperating health care system is just part of the story, which exposes the ways in which Friedrich ignored her body and the more temporal pleasures of life, and now begins to face middle age, menopause and the fear of death. Friedrich takes a very direct approach to the subject by showing herself in numerous doctors' offices dealing with an assortment of problems - ranging from diseased organs to broken bones to a major hormone imbalance. As she undergoes standard Western treatments, she also documents various attempts to incorporate alternative preventive methods into her daily life, such T'ai Chi, acupuncture, ingesting Chinese herbs and gardening. Ultimately, Friedrich lays bare her medical history as a means to address a perennial human problem: the desire to avoid conflict and deny the need for radical change.
* USA Film Festival
* Athens Film Festival
* Madcat Women’s Film Festival
* Women in the Director’s Chair
* Inside/Out Toronto Gay and Lesbian Film Festival
* Wisconsin Film Festival
* Pride International Film Festival, Manila, Philippines
* Ways in Being Gay Film Festival
* Immaginaria Lesbian Film Festival
* London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival
* Identities Queer Film Festival- FEMMEDIA Award for Best Documentary
* Vancouver International Film Festival
“Friedrich makes flinty and form-minded, extremely pragmatic, highly personal, affecting movies.”
J. Hoberman - The Village Voice
“….A subtly lensed first-person account of Friedrich’s own history of mysterious ailments and perennial surgeries…engagingly crafted, smoothly mellow rhythm.”
Ed Halter - The Village Voice
"...an engrossing, good-humored look at her long history of medical problems, "The Odds of Recovery" captures the frustration, tedium and petty annoyances of a revolving-door relationship with medical practitioners...”
Dennis Harvey - Variety
“…plays with the genre of the self-portrait…all in interwoven layers of narrative…allows us to see a life and a relationship through these transparent and yet illuminating layers.”
Brian Kiteley - English & Creative Writing, Duke University
[ http://www.wmm.com/catalog/pages/c599.htm ]
Amazing movie, if you're interested in diary filmaking, identity, body etc... don't miss this oneOdds of Recovery (Sue Friedrich 2002).avi, 401Mb
video: 352x240 01:06:11 29.96fps DivX 700Kbps
audio: 44KHz 01:06:11 Stereo 135Kbps mp3
Thanks to DarknessAtNoon@KG for this one. It was an mpg file, I've reencoded it to avi to save some much needed bandwidth.
THE LINK:
Odds of Recovery (Su Friedrich 2002).avi 
