The Illusion of Dreaming and "Gently Down The Stream"

Disorienting disconnected thoughts of perversion, sexuality, homosexuality, and animal-like rage.

These are the feelings conveyed by the imagery that plastered itself across the screen in this film. Flickering lights and blips of swimming, a woman, water, light, faces, rowing, seals, thrashing, religious iconography and birds: all developing a landscape of thought that represents a dream-like state.

The words etched into the film, "I saw a woman..." and "saw her pubic hair." They all seemed to not have any connection to the images being forced upon the viewer, except that of raw and thoughtless feelings and portrayal of what may have been seen by the person dreaming it. Besides simples connections of the word 'woman' and actually seeing a woman, I got the feeling that it was more than just the sum of all its parts. I felt that the connection was deeper. It was meant to suck you in, to make you dream this... or as if you already had. Many of our own dreams, as hard as we try to remember them, seem an illusion of coherence, when really they are far from it. I felt when staring at the flickering reflections of light on a swimming pool that is being disturbed by a woman gracefully and slowly swimming, that I was almost gliding through a liquid collection of thought, which could somehow represent a dream. The imagery of religious icons and the words about entering a church, were meant to delve into an intense feeling that all are familiar with. The feeling of a being or power greater than ourselves.

It is these connections that made the film seem so raw. It almost tapped into emotions that we all cycle through in our own dreams. Including thoughts of sexuality, of making love. The intensity of the words "moans... Howls.... ROARS," seemed to grab the actual essence of the imagery being proposed: a woman in a bathing suit, her swimming through waters that engulf her, flashes of light and things that cannot be explained. Holes that were punched in film helped to disorient the viewer. They flicker and flash, dizzying me, and pull me into a trance.

In summation, the words reflected much of the imagery that was shown. However, the imagery was limited and left to be developed by the viewer in their own mind. The thoughts were etched into the film. And even though they were flickering and dancing about on the screen, they left resonating meanings of what was to be seen and interpreted by the images. The purpose of this, I believe, to help them enter what was an illusion of a dream state and explore the thoughts of Su Friedrich when she created this film, disoriented as they may be.