It is in my work - and in my work alone - that I am most articulate, fearless and true to myself.  I make films the same way I cook - I never follow a recipe. 

Nature of Work   Susan Mogul
      
For the first fourteen years of my career I worked in various artistic, cultural, and political traditions in search of a metier that could exploit my temperament, skills and voice.  Finally through filmmaking, I found I could bend, stretch, and weave together all the threads of my background:  feminist art, video art, performance art, documentary, photography, and memoir, into a cohesive whole.

My video/films have been coined video diaries or auto-ethnographies.  I use myself as a gateway to the diverse communities I inhabit and expand the video diary form beyond the narcissistic self (For example, my neighborhood in Everyday Echo Street), and enable a wide array of people to see themselves in my work.  Although “real life” is my point of departure, I mix and blur genres in order to create dramatic and poetic narratives out of our everyday lives.

Often fueled by my own autobiographical perspective - an outsider looking in, and/or an insider looking out - I work as a one woman crew and shoot with a small hand-held video camera. This method allows me to create work that is spontaneous, responsive, and intimate.

Irreverent, poignant, and absurd, my work confronts traditional female roles directly or subversively (Take Off - aka the vibrator tape -and Sing, O Barren Woman, for example).  Moreover as a Jew, I am no stranger to being an outsider.  Curious, I wander and feel at home everywhere and nowhere, which is probably why I am obsessed with the conflicts and contradictions of fitting in, as I try to find a sense of home and place in the world.