Barbara Hammer

Barbara Hammer, an internationally recognized film artist who has made eighty films and videos, is considered a pioneer of lesbian-feminist experimental cinema. Her trilogy of documentary film essays on lesbian and gay history -- "Nitrate Kisses" (1992), "Tender Fictions" (1995), and "History Lessons" (2000) -- has received numerous awards. Her first documentary feature, "Nitrate Kisses" (1993) was funded by the NEA and has screened in countries around the world including Canada, Europe, New Zealand and South Africa. This film won the Audience Award for Best Documentary at the 1993 Women Director's Film Festival in Madrid, the Polar Bear Award at the 1993 International Berlin Film festival, and was selected for the Sundance, Creteil, Popoli, and Feminale Festivals in addition to many others. Hammer was awarded a Guardian Interview with its screening at the National Film Theater, London. "Nitrate Kisses" opened theatrically in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago and Austin. It was reviewed favorably by Vincent Canby in the N.Y. Times.

Hammer's second documentary feature, "Tender Fictions" (1995) premiered at the Sundance '96 Film Festival in the U.S. and the 34th International Film Festival in Berlin in Europe. It was awarded the Isabella Lidell Art Award at the 1996 Ann Arbor Film Festival. It screened at the Walker Art Museum in Minneapolis, Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Mary Riepman Ross Gallery at the Sheldon Theater at the University of Nebraska, the YYZ Gallery in Toronto, and numerous film festivals (Frameline, New Festival, Mix '96, Norwich Women Director's, Feminale in Cologne, Brisbane in Australia, and the Gay and Lesbian Film Festival in Paris).

"The Female Closet" (1988), Barbara Hammer's fourth feature documentary, marked her continuing interests in recovering and investigating the missing histories of lesbians, bisexuals and gays in Western culture.

Barbara Hammer has had retrospectives at The Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, the Berlin International Film Festival, the Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery in Lincoln, Nebraska, The Film Forum in Los Angeles and most recently, at the Out In Africa Film Festival in Capetown, South Africa (1994). Many of her films are in permanent collections and film libraries at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, the National Film Archives in Brussels, and the Donnell Library in New York City. Hammer's films were selected for the 1987, 1989, and 1993 Whitney Museum of American Art Biennials in New York. She has received numerous other prizes and awards at the national and international film festivals and has had work screened on public television broadcasts in New York, San Francisco, Chicago and Dallas. In 2000, she was honored with the Frameline Award for making a significant contribution to lesbian cinema.

Major grants that have supported Hammer's work are: Harvestwork Digital Sound Residency (June, 1994); The Lab Sound Residency (1994); AFI Digital Independence Grant (1993); The American Film Institute Film Production Grant (1992); The Western Media Regional Fellowship Grant (1992 and 1990); The National Endowment for the Arts Film Production Grant (1990 and 1984); The Jerome Foundation Film Production Grant (1990 and 1984); The Film Arts Foundation Film Production Grant (1990); John D. Phelan Awards in both Film and Video (1988 and 1990); SECA Award (1990); the New York State Council of the Arts Film Production Grant (1997, 1996 and 1989); and the Mid-Western Media Regional Fellowship Video Grant (1986); New York Foundation for the Arts Fellow (1997, 1991 and 1988); Art Matters (1997) and Art Links (1997).

Hammer is a respected film/video artist and is sought after to screen her work and lecture and write on related topics. She has taught at many institutions including School of the Art Institute, Chicago; California College of Arts and Crafts, the San Francisco Art Institute, School of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, School of the Visual Arts, and The New School for Social Research.

Hammer was chosen to be a judge in the documentary competition at the Sundance Film Festival. Ms. Hammer is an elected board member of the Association of Independent Video and Filmmakers in New York City and she has been selected to serve on the Advisory Board of S.F. Cinemateque and Friends of the Paul Robeson Fund, New York. Recently she became a Board Advisor for Film/Video Arts, New York City. She was an invited guest and played a highly visible and constructive part in identity politics discussions and debates at the 1993 Flaherty Documentary Conference.

She was selected for Digital Independence at the American Film Institute in Los Angeles in 1993 where she was trained on the Macintosh platform and completed two Quicktime movies. She has studied multi-media CD-ROM applications at the Bay Area Video Coalition, and has completed a course of study using the software program Macromind Director. Hammer was a mentor at the Film/Video Arts Mentor/Mentee Program; she received residencies to use the AVID 1000 there and at The Wexner Center for the Arts, Ohio.

Barbara Hammer earned an MA in film at San Francisco State University and took courses in multimedia digital studies at the American Film Institute. her most recent feature documentaries---Devotion: A Film about Ogawa productions (2000) opens theatrically in Tokyo this month and My Babushka: Searching Ukrainian Identities (2001) ---focuses on global issues outside her community. Some of her films are included in the permanent collections of new York's Museum of Modern Art and Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris.

Hammer is currently a Fellow at the Radcliffe Institute of Advanced Study. At Radcliffe, Hammer will work on her latest project, a 16mm feature documentary film called "Resisting Paradise." Shot in the Mediterranean fishing village of Cassis, the film contrasts the histories of French Resistance fighters with those of the painters Bonnard and Matisse, who continued to produce landscapes, portraits, and still lifes in this land of light and beauty even as the Nazis occupied France. Hammer's film will challenge viewers to confront the question: How can art exist during a time of political crisis?

Barbara Hammer lives and works in New York City. (04/02)

The Female Closet
A film by Barbara Hammer, 1998, 60 min., Color
This fascinating videotape from renowned filmmaker Barbara Hammer combines rare footage, interviews, and rich visual documentation to survey the lives...

The Films of Barbara Hammer
Three films by Barbara Hammer, 42 min.
Four classic celebrations of the female body and spirit. DYKETACTICS is a celebration of lesbian sensuality and sexuality; DOUBLE STRENGHT is an expe...

OUT IN SOUTH AFRICA
A film by Barbara Hammer, 1995, 51 min., Color
In 1994, Barbara Hammer was invited to South Africa to present a retrospective of her 77 films and videos at OUT IN SOUTH AFRICA, the first gay and le...

Sync Touch
A film by Barbara Hammer
In SYNC TOUCH, lesbian images are juxtaposed with common cliches, providing an ironic and humorous inquiry into the nature of the lesbian aesthetic....

Tender Fictions
A film by Barbara Hammer, 1995, 58 min., Color
Innovative, funny, and historic, TENDER FICTIONS is an autobiographical exploration of the search for and meaning of gay community. From a childhood ...