It's hammer time

Pioneering lesbian filmmaker Barbara Hammer emerged in the late 1960s cresting that first giddy wave of transgressive-feminism. She was frequently a participant in, rather than a mere voyeur of, lesbian sex in her early short films, including 1974’s Dyketactics. Her experimental output formed a lyrical quest for a distinctly lesbian iconography, and postulated the then widely embraced notion, that lesbianism wasn’t simply the way to swing, but a form of political liberation. Is this your new favourite historical period, or what?

Though Dyketactics will indeed screen as part of Outlook (the 12th Dublin Gay & Lesbian Film Festival), this year’s Barbara Hammer retrospective will primarily focus on her later feature-length work, including her historical trilogy; Nitrate Kisses (1992), Tender Fictions (1995) and History Lessons (2000). This should mark a scintillating cinematic event between History Lessons’ poetic, Chris Marker-inflected trawl through pseudo-scientific, anti-gay propaganda (think sapphic Reefer Madness material) juxtaposed with teasingly transgressive images; Tender Fictions’ poignant autobiographical account of immigrant life, encounters with D.W. Griffith and Shirley Temple fixations; and Nitrate Kisses‚ explicit, yet touching depictions of hot (and yes, it is hot) lesbian lovemaking between septuagenarians.
“That was very important to me,” explained Barbara when I spoke with her recently, “and I loved making that movie; in fact, yesterday I was just thinking that filming the gay, male sex for Nitrate Kisses was one of the most dramatic, filmic moments of my life. But I think maybe because I wasn’t raised within a religion, and perhaps because my mother had died before I completed my first film, I’ve never had any inhibitions about sexuality. I consider it as important as eating or sleeping, but more wonderful than either. So the most natural thing in the world for me, was taking my camera to bed, and filming intimacy.”
The documentarist will be present in person for the screening of her most recent work, Resisting Paradise, a fascinating look at the lives of the painters Mattisse and Bonnard in the South of France during World War Two. The film cannily counters the artists’ ostrich-like disinterest in the dreadful events happening around them, with the passionate actions of two resistance fighters – Marie-Ange Allibert, who issued thousands of false ration cards to Jews fleeing deportation, and Lisa Fittko, who led refugees, most notably Walter Benjamin, over the Pyrenees to evade capture.
“For myself,” Barbara tells me, “I felt very strongly that Mattisse and Bonnard could at least have given some money, or even just taken an interest in what was happening to Jews, gypsies and homosexuals in the country. But when I screened the first cut of the film at Harvard, where I have a fellowship, it had a more condemnatory tone and it completely divided the audience. All the artists – the painters, novelists and poets – felt attacked and got very defensive, and arguments broke out about ‘Bread And Roses’ between them and the other members of the audience. And I didn’t want that. I didn’t want the film to be divisive. I wanted people to think about what they would do in those circumstances. So I went back and interviewed Mattisse‚s granddaughter and grandson for the film, and they defended him – they pointed out he was an old man, that his health was failing and that all he knew to do in life was to paint.”
The resulting work is a brilliant meditation on the role of the artist at the time of war. Given the quite insatiable public appetite for anything relating to Nazis, I wonder if perhaps Barbara’s reputation as an avant-garde filmmaker doesn’t do her a disservice in terms of courting a deservedly wider audience?
“Yes, especially with the essay documentaries, because you’re making films about ideas. So‚ it’s not really the right wording, and it maybe limits the audience, so if anyone can come up with a better adjective for me in Ireland, I’d be delighted to hear it.”

Barbara Hammer is appearing at Outlook; 12th Dublin Lesbian & Gay Film Festival at the IFI from July 29 – August 2