Sarah Friedland

2011, HD video, 4 channel video installation, 20min–– This installation features three skating subcultures––Dancing, Gospel and Roller Derby––at Newark New Jersey's Branch Brook Park Skating Center.  Even though the groups share the same space, they rarely interact, reflecting larger racial and social realities in this city and country. The installation is immersive and asks the viewer to physically engage by responding to the screens from in the center of their square formation. This work uses documentary vocabulary in the format of installation. The decision to use four screens is spatial and thematic.  Arranged in a cube, they provide an enclosed area, reinforcing immersion. As it is impossible to view all screens simultaneously, the viewer is forced to move within the space, literally twisting the body like a skater. My goal is to collapse the difference between dance/movement and cinema, forging a reciprocal relationship between viewer and screens.

2018, super 16mm, 8min, made with Sean Hanley and Cori Spencer –– A group of strangers attempts the interpersonal ritual of a saying; a phrase deeply located in the languages, homes, and mythologies of the speaker. A listener acknowledges and translates the intention of this saying into a saying in one of their own languages. The new saying is passed to the ear of their neighbor and so it goes––a complicated game of telephone, a (mis)understood tower of Babel, a map of linguistic migration and colonization––until it reaches the beginning. The film depicts three versions of the invented ritual simultaneously in split screen Super-16mm, inviting the viewer to participate by listening to what they may not understand.

Work in Progress, HD video and animation, feature documentary, made with Rami Younis –– In 1948 a catastrophic event transformed the Palestinian city of Lyd forever, hundreds were massacred by occupation forces and most of the city’s inhabitants were sent into exile. Seventy years later, Lyd is now called Lod in Hebrew and the city that once connected Palestine to the world is now the capital of Israel’s drug trade –– disinvested and divided. But what if the massacre and expulsion never happened? Lyd in Exile combines dystopian, documentary footage and animated fictional scenes to portray two simultaneous realities. Through documentary scenes with a Palestinian metal worker in Balata Refugee Camp who is trapped in exile, never before seen Israeli archival footage of Zionist soldiers admitting to their war crimes, a Palestinian teacher in Lyd fighting to keep Palestinian identity alive for the next generation and other characters, Lyd in Exile follows the current, harsh realities of Palestinian life under occupation. And through animated fictional sequences, it also colorfully and often humorously imagines what life would be like for these same characters if the occupation had never happened and the open wound left by the massacre and expulsion was closed.  More information here. Follow us on facebook@LydInExile

HERE AFTER Shorts is an ongoing collection of short films that we have produced from around the country on the evolving ways that the US memorializes its lives. These shorts are made in varying styles and we are open to your suggestions.  If you have a story that you want to share, contact us. Check out Wiott Wall above and see more shorts here.

A study of Ecclesiastes (Koheleth in Hebrew) using the text, drawing, a camera and a couple of packets of articulating paper that I found outside a dentist office in New York City. Displayed through an interactive website, or a physical installation. See full piece- here.

Branch Brook Park Roller Rink, located in Newark, NJ, is one of the few remaining urban rinks of its kind. This concrete structure is nestled in a public park bordered by public housing and a highway. Upon first glance, the exterior resembles a fallout shelter; however, the streamers and lights of the interior are reminiscent of 1970s roller discos. The Rink The Rink is a tribute to the dwindling affordable spaces of diversion in American cities, places where citizens can congregate, create community, and enjoy life. Learn about how you can see this film here!  

From 2010-2013, Esy Casey and I created 10 short films about art making and artists. We were interested in exploring the work of different kinds of artist, at different levels of their careers, and with different approaches to making work. The commonality was that we felt these people were saying something interesting about the world and the ways in which humans interact with it. The shorts were featured on GritTV, Art Asia Pacific online, Filmmaker Magazine, and Artlog. You can watch them here!

This multi-part media installation is an exercise in using data collection and interpretation to create narratives. In doing so, it makes clear the ways in which reality is skewed by perception and bias. 1) We collected many pieces of "evidence" from Port Authority bus terminal: scraps of paper, audio recordings, video, and physical objects. 2) We asked the public to analyze the data and create a narrative of what they thought may have occurred. This was done in public interventions: at laundromats, classrooms, port authority, and prospect park ; online; and at our gallery show. 3) We each chose one of the narratives that the public had created and made a film based on that narrative.

Made during a residency at the D’Atelier Residence in Pont-Aven, this short film combines experimental audio design and film/video to illustrate the dream life of this small French village.