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Freidrichs was born in New Ulm, Minnesota, and his family moved around to various small Midwestern towns. Just before high school, the Freidrichs family settled in Wentzville, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis. There Freidrichs met Paul Fehler, his co-producer for Jandek of Corwood, who sat next to him in gym class. They teamed up for their first film during their senior year at Wentville High School, an adaptation of Chaucer's "The Pardoner's Tale" for a senior English project.
After high school, Freidrichs attended film school at New York University's prestigious Tisch School of the Arts. However, financial constraints forced him to drop out after just one year, and he moved back home with his parents and began his first in a long string of factory jobs. However, Freidrichs recognized the importance of a college education, and once he got back on his feet, and followed Fehler to the University of Missouri-Columbia, where he graduated with a bachelor's degree in English and met his
future wife, Jaime Elliott. After college, Freidrichs obtained a job making television commercials for the local ABC and FOX affiliates. This job taught him much about shooting, editing, and making pompous local businessmen who have no business being in front of a camera sound intelligible. After hours, Freidrichs made attempt after attempt to get a film off the ground.
Unfortunately, the lack of funding, equipment, and trained actors stood in his way. In November of 2001, Fehler told Freidrichs about Jandek, whom he had discovered from Seth Tisue's Website. Freidrichs agreed that Jandek would make a perfect documentary and as he had recently spent his girlfriend's (now wife) student loan money on a digital video camera, he had the equipment necessary to make the film.
After 40,000 miles of travel, $5,000 (not including the camera), 60 hours of footage, 500 hours of editing,
Freidrichs proudly releases Jandek on Corwood.
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