# Barbara Hammer [wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Hammer) [barbarahammer.com](https://barbarahammer.com/) (1939–2019) ## Description American filmmaker regarded as a founding figure of lesbian experimental cinema, moving from early hand-processed 16mm work exploring lesbian sexuality and embodiment in the 1970s West Coast scene to later documentary and diary films addressing mortality and her own terminal illness. ## Key Tags #film-poem #diary-film #west-coast #queer #queer-film #feminist ## Essential Works - [Dyketactics](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Hammer) (1974) - foundational lesbian experimental short, among the first explicit depictions of lesbian sexuality in avant-garde film - [Nitrate Kisses](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitrate_Kisses) (1992) - essay film recovering queer history erased from the archive, first of her "History Trilogy" - [A Horse Is Not a Metaphor](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Hammer) (2008) - diary film made during her cancer treatment ## Details Began making films in the early 1970s after leaving a suburban marriage, teaching herself 16mm shooting and hand-processing while active in the West Coast feminist and lesbian communities. Her explicit, joyful early depictions of lesbian sexuality and embodiment gave way in the 1990s to archival essay films recovering erased queer history (the "History Trilogy": *Nitrate Kisses*, *Tender Fictions*, *History Lessons*), and finally to diary films confronting her own mortality after an ovarian cancer diagnosis in 2006. A vocal advocate for funding queer experimental film, establishing her namesake grant before her death. ### Concepts and Theories - [[Queer Theory]] - her body of work is a foundational primary reference point for queer and lesbian film theory ### Creative and Technical Practices %% none yet %% ### Collaborators %% none yet %% ### Institutional Affiliations and Associated Movements - [[Barbara Hammer Lesbian Experimental Filmmaking Grant]] - annual grant established from her estate, administered by Queer|Art ## References ### Primary Sources Bibliography %% none yet %% ### Secondary Sources Bibliography %% none yet %%