Roberta Friedman

In 1916, a Chicago steel worker accidentally kills his supervisor and flees to the Texas panhandle with his girlfriend and little sister to work harvesting wheat in the fields of a stoic farmer.

A New York City drug dealer decides to get out of the business, but has to flee from mobsters.

Making it in New York City is tough. Few get the chance to live out their dreams, and the cast and crew of In the Heights know this all too well. This young, diverse group of relatively unknown artists and performers dreamed of making it on Broadway, but are well aware that a new original musical set outside a bodega in the Latino neighborhood of Washington Heights is a highly risky proposition. It took eight years in all, but they succeeded beyond their wildest expectations, winning four Tony Awards along the way, including Best Musical and Best Score for a Musical. This documentary chronicles the personal stories of composer/lyricist Lin-Manuel Miranda and the cast of In the Heights in the months leading up to its 2008 opening night.

Jack is a middle aged, overweight shoe store owner with a secure upper middle class lifestyle, including a beautiful, demanding trophy wife. When Jack "runs into" Rosie and Louie, small time criminals on the run from the law, they kidnap Jack in order to use his off-season, deserted vacation house as a temporary hideout. A thoroughly bizarre and surprising weekend unfolds, full of revelations and reassessments.

Tells the poignant chapter in the historic struggle to secure equal and adequate access to healthcare for all Americans. Central to the story is the tale of how a new national program, Medicare, was used to mount a dramatic, coordinated effort that desegregated thousands of hospitals across the country in a matter of months.

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.

1973, 16mm, 00:12:30

A documentary about women's basic training in Fort Georgia.

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 blue collar worker tries to rescue his pregnant, heroin-addicted girlfriend from the notorious streets of Camden, NJ and her close-knit group of drug users. Once their son is born, he forces her to choose between her life with her drug "family" and one with him and their child.

A short documentary following 19-year-old Amanda Dunbar, who shares her thoughts on being an artist alongside a group of children in her art class. This documentary is included as a special feature on the 2002 Barbie as Rapunzel DVD.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

(1974, 16mm, color, sound, 3.5min.)

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

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.