MoMA CELEBRATES BARBARA HAMMER, WITH A MONTH-LONG RETROSPECTIVE OF THE PROLIFIC ARTIST’S EXTENSIVE BODY OF WORK
Exhibition Includes the World Premiere of Hammer’s Newest Film, Generations, as well as Her Groundbreaking Experimental Short Films and Documentaries
Barbara Hammer September 15-October 13, 2010 The Roy and Niuta Titus Theaters
NEW YORK, August 13, 2010— A retrospective of works by experimental filmmaker Barbara Hammer (American, b. 1939) spanning from 1968 to today, including the world premiere of her new film Generations (2010), made in collaboration with Gina Carducci, will be shown at The Museum of Modern Art from September 15 through October 13, 2010. Hammer is renowned for creating the earliest and most extensive body of avant-garde films on lesbian life and sexuality, including Dyketactics (1974) and Women I Love (1976). In the late 1960s, Barbara Hammer was drawn to experimental film as a student at San Francisco State University. During that time she came out as a lesbian, an act that helped to radicalize her approach to directing. Galvanized by the second wave of feminism in the 1970s, she soon became a pioneer of queer cinema. She has since directed more than 80 films, using avant- garde strategies to explore lesbian and gay sexuality, identity, and history, along with other heretofore unrepresented voices. Her 1970s films dealt with the representation of taboo subjects through performance, in the 1980s she worked with an optical printer to explore perception, and in the 1990s she began making documentaries about hidden aspects of queer history. Hammer says, ―It is a political act to work and speak as a lesbian artist in the male dominant art world and to speak as an avant- garde artist to a lesbian and gay audience. My presence and voice address both issues of homophobia [and] the need for an emerging community to explore a new imagination.‖ Barbara Hammer is organized by Sally Berger, Assistant Curator, Department of Film, The Museum of Modern Art. Hammer will speak after the world premiere of Generations and following other films throughout the retrospective, sometimes reading from her autobiography, Hammer! Making Movies Out of Sex and Life (The Feminist Press at The City University of New York, 2010). Hammer’s debut feature film, Nitrate Kisses, will be followed by a panel discussion with Film Studies Professor Maria Pramagiorre and filmmakers Peter Cramer and Jack Waters who also appear in the film (Monday, September 20 at 7:00). Modern Mondays: Hidden Hammer, An Evening with Barbara Hammer will concentrate on her performance, photography, and installation work, and discuss some of the lesser known and hidden aspects of her practice (Monday, October 4, 7:00).
Press Contact: D’Arcy Drollinger, (212) 708-9747, [email protected]
For downloadable images, please visit www.moma.org/press.
Public Information: The Museum of Modern Art, 11 West 53rd Street, New York, NY 10019
Hours: Films are screened Wednesday-Monday. For screening schedules, please visit www.moma.org. Film Admission: $10 adults; $8 seniors, 65 years and over with I.D. $6 full-time students with current I.D. (For admittance to film programs only.) The price of a film ticket may be applied toward the price of a Museum admission ticket when a film ticket stub is presented at the Lobby Information Desk within 30 days of the date on the stub (does not apply during Target Free Friday Nights, 4:00–8:00 p.m.). Admission is free for Museum members and for Museum ticketholders.
The public may call (212) 708-9400 for detailed Museum information. Visit us at www.moma.org
Screening Schedule
Barbara Hammer September 15-October 13, 2010
Wednesday, September 15
8:00 Mentors: Hammer Collaborates with Other Women
Moon Goddess. 1976. With Gloria Churchman. In this Jung-influenced work, two women search Death Valley for the feminine creative spirit, guided by the moon and mutual respect. New York premiere. 15 min.
Still Point. With Florrie Burke. 1989. "At the still point of the turning world, that’s where the dance is." (T.S. Elliot in Burnt Norton, the Four Quartets). 8 min.
Two Bad Daughters. 1998. With Paula Levine. Two artists explore art themes related to the infidelity of feminist practice and play as subversive. 12 min.
Generations. 2010. With Gina Carducci. Inspired by Shirley Clarke’s film Bridges Go Round (1953), Hammer and Carducci use two Bolex cameras to capture the final days of Coney Island’s Astroland amusement park. World premiere. 30 min.
Program 65 min. Followed by a discussion with Hammer, Burke, Levine and Carducci. Also playing Thursday, September 30, 4:00pm.
Thursday, September 16
4:00 The Radical 1970s: Coming Out Performance-driven films capture the free-love era, the second wave of feminism, and the West Coast art scene.
Sisters! 1974. This film, made by, for, and about women, shows women in nontraditional roles running the machinery of the world. The film includes scenes of the first Women’s Liberation march in 1970. 8 min.
Women’s Rites or Truth Is the Daughter of Time. 1974. An autumnal celebration held on ―witches’ land‖ in Northern California, of fall leaves, brooks and bathing, chanting circles, and women’s rites. 8 min.
Dyketactics. 1974. Images of women and children romping in nature evolve into an intimate scene between two women. 4 min.
Menses. 1974. A humorous look at the trials of menstruation. 4 min.
Superdyke. 1975. Piano by Margaret Moore. Over one day, women wearing ―Superdyke‖ t-shirts and carrying Amazon shields overtake San Francisco. 20 min.
Women I Love. 1976. A fruit or vegetable provides a metaphor for the filmmakers’ relationships with women friends and lovers. 25 min.
Program 79 Min. Also playing Friday, October 1, 7:00pm, followed by a discussion with Hammer and Stephen Kent Jusick , Executive Director, MIX NYC.
7:00 The Radical 1970s: Breaking Boundaries Short films explore women’s sexuality and traditional norms.
A Gay Day. 1973. A wedding march turns into a funeral dirge in this anti-marriage statement and satire on lesbian monogamy. 3 min.
Psychosynthesis: I Was/I Am. 1973. 7 min.; "X". 1973. 8 min.; Psychosynthesis. 1975. 8 min. This trilogy of films explores self-representation through dreamlike imagery dealing with emotional states.
Multiple Orgasm. 1976. A woman masturbates; her orgasms are revealed through her facial and vaginal contractions, superimposed with images of the natural landscape. 6 min.
Available Space. 1979. The filmmaker escapes the confines of the frame by pushing the rectangular film screen and the confines of the ―domestic house.‖ 20 min.
No No Nooky TV. 1987. A digital exploration of sexuality as a social construction. 11 min.
Program 63 min. Followed by a discussion with Hammer. Also playing Wednesday, September 29, 4:00pm.
Friday, September 17
4:00 The Great Goddess Moon Goddess. 1976. With Gloria Churchman. In this Jung-influenced work, two women search Death Valley for the feminine creative spirit, guided by the moon and mutual respect. 15 min.
The Great Goddess. 1977. A filmed performance piece in which a child, two teens, a mother, and three ―crones‖ spin spirals of birth, death, and rebirth. 25 min.
The Lesbos Film. 1981. Shot on the island of Lesbos in the Aegean Sea, this film documents the experiences of a group of feminist students attending the Aegean Women’s Studies Institute. 27 min.
Program 67 min. Also playing Saturday, October 2, 4:00pm.
7:00 Self Portraits Schizy. 1968. Hammer’s first film explores the duality of the masculine and feminine. 3 min.
Audience. 1982. Hammer records the audience reactions to her films in London at the Filmmakers' Co-op; San Francisco at the Roxie Theater during Gay Pride Week; Toronto at The Funnel; and Montreal, at McGill University. 33 min.
Would You Like to Meet Your Neighbor? A New York Subway Tape. 1985. The artist encourages communication among New York subway riders. 13 min.
A Horse Is Not a Metaphor. 2008. The story of a woman’s survival against ovarian cancer. 30 min.
Program 79 min. Followed by a discussion with Hammer. Also playing Friday, October 1, 4:00pm.
Saturday, September 18
4:00 Collaborations Superdyke Meets Madame X. 1976. With Max Almy. Two filmmakers explore their relationship to film and to each other. 28 min.
Double Strength. 1978. With Terry Sendgraff. The stages of a lesbian relationship, from romantic love to enduring friendship, unfold through the actions of a trapeze artist and her lover. 16 min.
Pools. 1981. With Barbara Klutinis. Shot in the pools at Hearst Castle designed by Julia Morgan, the first woman architect to graduate from the Beaux Arts Academy. 9 min.
Generations. 2010. With Gina Carducci. Inspired by Shirley Clarke’s film Bridges Go Round (1953), Hammer and Carducci use two Bolex cameras to capture the final days of Coney Island’s Astroland amusement park. World premiere. 30 min.
Program 83 min. Followed by a discussion with Hammer and Klutinis. Also playing Wednesday, September 29, 7:00pm.
7:30 Artist Portraits 1 Resisting Paradise. 2003. This examination of the individual’s role in times of conflict focuses on the friendship and creative artistic output of Henri Matisse and Pierre Bonnard, who lived a sequestered existence in the south of France during WWII, amid an active French resistance. 80 min. Also playing Saturday, October 2, 1:30pm.
Sunday,September 19
2:00 Artist Portraits 2 Jane Brakhage. 1975. A documentary on the life and philosophy of artist and mother Jane Brakhage. 10 min.
Lover/Other. 2006. With Kathleen Chalfant. This hybrid drama/documentary captures the life of 1920s Surrealist photographer Claude Cahun, who lived with her stepsister Marcel Moore on the Nazi occupied Isle of Jersey during WWII. Artists and lovers who openly resisted the Nazi presence, they lived peacefully among residents until they were sentenced to death by the occupiers. 55 min.
Program 65 min. Followed by a discussion with Hammer and Chalfant. Also playing Saturday, October 2, 6:30pm.
5:00 The 1980s: Nature, Science, and Optical Printing Sync Touch. 1981. A lesbian feminist aesthetic connects touch and sight. 10 min.
Pond and Waterfall. 1982. A film following the cycle of water as it flows from pond accumulation into a stream, over a waterfall and to the ocean. 15 min.
Tourist. 1984. The filmmaker and other tourists circle the Isle de la cite on a Bateau Mouche in this examination of spectation and perception. 3 min.
Optic Nerve. 1985. Hammer’s first film made entirely using an optical printer evokes the raw emotion of visiting her grandmother in a nursing home. 16 min.
Place Mattes. 1987. Traveling mattes of the artist’s torso and extremities filmed in Puget Sound, Yosemite, and the Yucatan attempt to ―touch‖ nature, but are blocked between figure and ground by the two-dimensionality of the screen. 9 min.
Program 53 min. Also playing Wednesday, October 6, 4:00pm.
Monday, September 20
4:00 The Vital 1980s Snow Job: The Media Hysteria of AIDS. 1986. Made at the height of misinformation about the AIDS crisis in the U.S., the film juxtaposes alarming newspaper headlines with scenes of Brent Nicholson Earle in the American Run for the End of AIDS. 9 min.
Endangered. 1988. Light, life and 16mm film are threatened by extinction in this tour de force of optical printing. 19 min.
Vital Signs. 1991. Archival x-ray footage, clips from Hiroshima Mon Amour, and text from Michel Foucault’s The Birth of the Clinic are juxtaposed to evoke the intimacy of death. 10 min.
Sanctus. 1990. Neil Rolnick, composer. Early X-ray footage of figures performing everyday physical acts is accompanied by a majestic orchestral and choral soundtrack in an exploration of the fragility of light, life and experimental film. 20 min.
Program 57 min. Also playing Saturday, October 2, 8:00pm.
7:00 Lesbian and Gay Histories, Part 1 Nitrate Kisses. 1992. Hammer’s debut feature—the first in a trilogy—documents lesbian and gay sexuality and history from the 1930s to the 1990s. A forbidden and marginalized people are put in context by the contemporary sexual activities of four couples. 67 min. Followed by a discussion with Hammer; Maria Pramaggiore, Professor Film Studies, NC State University; and Peter Cramer and Jack Waters, filmmakers, choreographers, and performers. Also playing Sunday, October 3, 5:00pm.
Wednesday, September 22
4:00 Lesbian and Gay Histories: International Out in South Africa. 1994. This extemporaneous documentary explores the personal and political struggles of gay life in post-apartheid South Africa. 51 min.
The Female Closet. 1998. Using newly discovered home movies and archival photographs, Hammer explores the hidden histories of three artists—Alice Austen, Hannah Hoch, and Nicole Eisenman—to plumb the impulse to keep lesbian identities secret. 58 min. Program 109 min. Also playing Thursday, September 30, 7:00pm.
7:00 Lesbian and Gay Histories, Parts 2 and 3 Tender Fictions. 1995. A combination of personal and lesbian and gay history, this work explores the literary genres of biography and autobiography. The title is a reference to Gertrude Stein’s autobiographical Tender Buttons. 58 min.
History Lessons. 2000. This final film in Hammer’s history of lesbian and gay sexuality in America from 1920 through the 1960s turns archival medical, advertising and, pornography footage into a comedic compendium of lesbian pre-Stonewall history. 66 min. Followed by a discussion with Hammer. Also playing Wednesday, October 13, 4:00pm.
Thursday, September 23
Devotion: A Film About Ogawa Productions. 2000. This documentary, about a committed group of Japanese filmmakers who devoted their lives to working for the great Ogawa Shinsuke, reveals their complex and hierarchical relationships. 84 min. Also playing Monday, October 11, 7:00pm.
Friday, September 24
7:00 Self-Portraits 2 Home. 1976. A portrait of the filmmaker’s childhood homes narrated by her Ukrainian grandmother and her Swedish father. 12 min.
My Babushka: Searching Ukrainian Identities. 2001. A search for Hammer’s maternal ethnic heritage in central Ukraine uncovers human rights issues. 53 min. Also playing Sunday, September 26, 2:00pm.
Sunday, September 26
2:00 Self-Portraits 2 (See Friday, September 24, 7:00.)
Wednesday, September 29
4:00 The Radical 1970s: Breaking Boundaries (See Thursday, September 16, 7:00.)
7:00 Collaborations (See Saturday, September 18, 4:00.)
Thursday, September 30
4:00 Mentors: Hammer Collaborates with Other Women (See Wednesday, September 15, 8:00)
7:00 Lesbian and Gay Histories: International (See Wednesday, September 22, 4:00.)
Friday, October 1
4:00 Self Portraits (See Friday, September 17, 7:00.)
7:00 The Radical 1970s: Coming Out (See Thursday, September 16, 4:00.)
Saturday, October 2
1:30 Artist Portraits 1 (See Saturday, September 18, 7:30.)
4:00 The Great Goddess (See Friday, September 17, 4:00.)
6:30 Artist Portraits 2 (See Sunday September 19, 2:00.)
8:00 The Vital 1980s (See Monday, September 20, 4:00.)
Sunday, October 3
5:00 Lesbian and Gay Histories, Part 1 (See Monday, September 20, 7:00.)
Monday, October 4
7:00 Modern Mondays: Hidden Hammer, An Evening with Barbara Hammer Prolific and influential filmmaker Barbara Hammer presents unknown works from her archive concentrating on her performance, photography, and installation work, and discussing some of the lesser known and hidden aspects of her practice. The evening includes a reprise of some of her gender play with identity such as when she is in the role of Bob Hammer in Tender Fictions (1995) and other performance related projects that include Homage to Sappho (1978), Put a Lesbian in the Whitehouse (1979), Available Space (1979), and Changing the Shape of Film, Moving Projector and Balloon Projection (2009).
Wednesday, October 6
4:00 The 1980s: Nature, Science, and Optical Printing (See Sunday, September 19, 5:00.)
Monday, October 11
7:00 Devotion: A Film About Ogawa Productions. (See Thursday, September 23, 4:00.)
Wednesday, October 13
4:00 Lesbian and Gay Histories, Parts 2 and 3 (See Wednesday, September 22, 7:00.)