Faculty Spotlight: Roberta Friedman

Associate Professor Roberta Friedman’s upcoming visit to Cuba to showcase her new video installation created in conjunction with her video partner, Dan Loewenthal, at the sixth annual International Videoart Festival  in Camaguey, is, in filmmaker’s parlance, the “inciting incident” for this story.  Friedman, along with another MSU associate professor, Beverly Peterson, are at the leading edge of a détente with the communist nation with their participation in the festival.  But, the real story is in the work Friedman will be showcasing – “49 Waltzes for the Motor City: Detroit.”

The biennial video festival and conference will run from March 31 to April 4, and Friedman’s homage to Detroit is an interactive video installation.  She is excited at the prospect of highlighting her work to the international video community. “I have wanted to go to Cuba for a long time and this was the perfect opportunity."

So, what exactly is a video installation and what is the genesis for the title of Friedman’s work? 

According to Wikipedia, a video installation is “a contemporary art form [born in the 1970s] that combines video technology with installation art, making use of all aspects of the surrounding environment to affect the audience.”  Friedman adds, this installation is a part of “ a series of artistic video installation pieces that capture the essence of selected cities.  The aim is to encourage people to listen to the sounds of the city and to experience the particular spirit of that place which integrates the populace, architecture, history, culture and the sounds inherent in it.”

“49 Waltzes for the Motor City: DETROIT” implies Friedman has used other locations as her canvas, and, indeed, she has been a world traveler and video installer in such cities as:  New York, Cairo, Graz, Beijing, Milan and Detroit.  All except the New York piece were produced with Loewenthal, (an MSU Filmmaking adjunct instructor) 

How it works

Video installation art proves  art is no longer passive and static.  Roberta Friedman’s work requires audience involvement, and it is dynamic and multi-dimensional.

The components for Roberta’s  49 Waltz series  includes a 50 inch high definition monitor with external speakers, which can be mounted on a stand or wall, a 30 inch touch screen , a laptop to run the program, and additional monitors so the piece can be viewed by several people at the same time, although there is only one “driver.” 

“49 Waltzes for the Motor City: DETROIT”

Detroit, once the most American of cities, was once the engine of the rapid growth of the US industrial might in the twentieth century.  It is now a model for a dystopian take on the American dream. It was the change of fortune of the Motor City that was what Friedman and  Loewenthal wanted to explore.  “What could we discover about how far we came and where we could go as a society? What did the city look and sound like beyond the destruction porn we see in the media? We also wanted to hear what people had to say about their city:  what they remembered and why they feel the city is at this crossroad and could fall further or rise in another form.” 

Friedman and Loewenthal employed the same random method they  had used in previous Waltz projects.  They recorded 49 Waltzes, 147 locations, each with a 360 degree shot in Detroit.   In this particular case, documentary element was added:  If a person was standing on one of the selected corners, they were interviewed, and that was included in the piece.

“49 Waltzes for the Motor City” is a unique vehicle aimed at revealing the many facets of Detroit present and past, and what might be its future as it struggles to emerge in a new form with a sense of its historical significance intact. 

Explaining 49 Waltzes

The origin of the series title also has a compelling story, and, in a way it’s Friedman’s homage to John Cage.  In 1977, at the invitation of Rolling Stone magazine, American avant-garde composer John Cage celebrated the sounds of New York City with a graphic music score that invited the listener to experience the specific sounds (the music) of randomly selected places in his beloved city. Using the IChing (an ancient divination text for explaining random selection) as his agent of selection, Cage designated 147 locations from all five boroughs and organized them in sets of three. Lines connected each set of three locations creating 49 triangles.  Ergo, his title, “49 Waltzes for the Five Boroughs.”  Cage instructed the participant to go to the apex of each “angle” and just listen or record the sound of the city. 

According to Cage, “Wherever we are, what we hear is mostly noise.  When we ignore it, it disturbs us. When we listen to it, we find it fascinating.”

In 1992 Roberta was asked by Don Gillespie of Peters Publishing to create a video realization of this work. Cage suggested that this same piece be transcribed for other cities in the world, and here provided a template for subsequent waltz pieces.

Friedman’s Path from “Star Wars” to Video Installation Art

“49 Waltzes…” seems a far cry from Roberta Friedman’s more conventional roots.  She began her career in radio as producer of the KPFK, (Los Angeles Pacifica Station) series, "Richland Woman." From there she segued into creating film titles and opticals, leading to special effects with Lucasfilm on “Star Wars” and “The Empire Strikes Back” – specializing in sparks, matte work, and swords.  Friedman continued in post-production working on such notable features as “Ragtime,” “Days of Heaven,” and “Hair.”  She was also the producer of the feature film “Alphabet City,” and co-produced Blockbuster films,  “Wolves of Wall Street,” and  “A Good Night To Die,”  among others.

In addition, Friedman has extensive production and post-production television credits. She worked with  Michael Moore on “The Awful Truth,”  his  weekly documentary series for Bravo Channel and Britain’s Channel 4 in the U.K.  She has worked for HBO, Bravo, A&E, and WNET, to name a few.  She was the executive producer of “HERE! Family,” a television series about gay, lesbian and transgender families, that was broadcast on the HERE! Network.  She produced the biography of Stockard Channing for Bravo, and produced and developed a one hour weekly series “ID: It’s Dance!” an issue based rock and roll weekly dance/talk show for WWOR.

Friedman’s documentary credits include a documentary with the director, professor Tony Pemberton,  about the rock group Devo, titled, “Are We Not Men?” currently in post production, and  “KANDINSKY: Another Look”, which was presented at the Guggenheim Museum in conjunction with the Kandinsky show in 2009 and 2010.  She was the Producer/Post Supervisor of  “One Man’s Greed”,  a hard look at corporate greed and the destroying of the Redwoods in Northern California – a high definition documentary feature film , “The Music In You,” for Mattel Entertainment Corp.  released  worldwide on DVD, “Cabinet of Spells,” about Cinderella, women and storytelling, “Pearl Harbor: A Time to Remember,” which aired on PBS and  “Art and Remembrance”  for German Television ZDF.   This is only a partial list. 

Recently, her work has been screened at the Oberhausen Film Festival, Rotterdam International Film Festival, Montreal International Arts Festival, and the Athens International Film Festival among others, and her work was selected as the Director’s Choice Award at the 2011 Black Maria Film Festival. Her experimental work has been restored and is archived by the Academy of Motion Pictures of Arts and Sciences, and her interactive installation, “The Erl King” is in the permanent collection of the Guggenheim Museum.   

Roberta was appointed Assistant Director of Film, for the New York Mayor’s Office of Film, Theatre, and Broadcasting serving during the Koch administration, and was a liaison between the film community and all of New York City. 

Roberta Friedman views her 49 Waltz series as reflective of places on the cusp of change, and therein lies another, more compelling reason for her trip.  “Cuba is definitely in that category – I hope to return to shoot another 49 Waltz piece in Havana,” she says.

Associate Professor Beverly Peterson will be accompanying Friedman to Cuba to present her documentary “What Killed Kevin,” and she will be highlighted in next month’s newsletter.