Lamplightings
Four Films by Barbara Hammer
Directed by Barbara Hammer
Sunday, March 16, 1 pm
Free, first come, first served

An essential voice in queer filmmaking, Barbara Hammer’s cinematic career provides an expansive and empathic perspective on sexuality, connection, aesthetics, and the political imperative for liberation. Hammer’s explorations of the filmic language began in the late 1960’s and did not cease until her death in 2019, comprising a varied trail of cinematic insights and instructions. Considered a pioneer of the lesbian film genre, Hammer’s art consistently reveals a deeply personal and critical eye for the living world and how humanity is to inhabit it. This program collects four films that provide a brief survey of her oeuvre, highlighting her flexibility of form and featuring one of her most impactful statements, Audience (1982). 1974-1990, U.S., 16mm, 68 minutes. Recommended for 17+.

Dyketactics

A popular lesbian “commercial,” 110 images of sensual touching montages in A, B, C, D rolls of “kinaesthetic” editing. 1974, U.S., 16mm, 4 minutes.

Sync Touch

A lesbian/feminist aesthetic proposing the connection between touch and sight to be the basis for a “new cinema.” The film explores the tactile child nature within the adult woman filmmaker, the connection between sexuality and filmmaking, and the scientific analysis of the sense of touch. 1981, U.S., 16mm, 12 minutes.

Audience

Barbara Hammer takes her camera out to film the audiences at screenings of her films–some women only, some mixed–at the London Film-makers’ Co-op; at the Roxie Theater, in San Francisco, during Gay Pride Week (where the audience includes fellow filmmaker Curt McDowell); at The Funnel, in Toronto; and at McGill University, in Montreal. 1982, U.S., 16mm, 33 minutes.

This film was preserved by Electronic Arts Intermix and the Academy Film Archive through the National Film Preservation Foundation’s Avant-Garde Masters Grant program and The Film Foundation. Funding provided by the George Lucas Family Foundation.

Sanctus

Sanctus is a film of the rephotographed moving x-rays originally shot by Dr. James Sibley Watson and his colleagues. Making the invisible visible, the film reveals the skeletal structure of the human body as it protects the hidden fragility of interior organ systems. 1990, U.S., 16mm, 19 minutes. An essential voice in queer filmmaking, Barbara Hammer’s cinematic career provides an expansive and empathic perspective on sexuality, connection, aesthetics, and the political imperative for liberation. Hammer’s explorations of the filmic language began in the late 1960’s and did not cease until her death in 2019, comprising a varied trail of cinematic insights and instructions. Considered a pioneer of the lesbian film genre, Hammer’s art consistently reveals a deeply personal and critical eye for the living world and how humanity is to inhabit it. This program collects four films that provide a brief survey of her oeuvre, highlighting her flexibility of form and featuring one of her most impactful statements, Audience (1982).