Lesbian artist Barbara Hammer felt invisible for most of her life. She started making films in the late 1960s, but emerging queer filmmakers often face the same challenges today. All the success that we’ve seen with this film hasn’t translated into funding for new projects or making money.
I really hope that it will at some point.” After screenings at Sundance and Berlinale, O’Connor is bringing the film to Ji.hlava Intl. Documentary Film Festival, where she presented it at the U.S. Produced by A Space Time Films and Killer Films production in co-production with Kartemquin Films, it gained powerful allies in Kristen Stewart and uber-producer Christine Vachon.
That’s what supporting a new generation of queer artists looks like,” notes O’Connor. Making a film about someone who, despite her influence, isn’t exactly a household name, wasn’t easy. But does that relate to the present day and broader audiences?’” “I was wondering: How did she do it all?
How did she make over 85 films? How did she archive her entire life in 125 boxes that she eventually sold to Yale? How did she have such a successful relationship towards the end of her life?
The complexity of just living, being ambitious and trying to make it happen feels very relatable to me,” she says. I’m so grateful for that. It’s such a win to release it, but it was hard to convince people of its place in the market.” Ironically enough, Hammer’s work often felt ahead of her time.
Like today’s influencers, she wasn’t afraid to interview passers-by, film herself or share intimate moments with the camera. Barbara started using social media at the end of her life, and she was certainly interested in it. She put herself in the frame as a way to process her feelings and certain situation in her life.
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