Barbara Hammer
The Fearless Frame
3–26 February 2012
Starr Auditorium
Bankside
London SE1 9TG
Barbara Hammer (born 1939) is a pivotal figure in American experimental film. An acclaimed pioneer of queer cinema, her prolific output includes the earliest avant-garde films that openly address lesbian life and sexuality. Her work remains of fundamental importance for a new generation of artists exploring new voices and new modes of experimenting with the moving image.
This major survey of Hammer’s work will be launched with the premiere of her new short film, Maya Deren’s Sink (2011), a tribute to Hammer’s longstanding fascination with Deren. The month-long series also includes screenings of early, rarely seen Super 8 films, a free evening of expanded cinema performances in the Turbine Hall, an evening in response to Hammer’s work curated by artist Emily Roysdon featuring Chris Vargas and Greg Youmans, and several events presenting artists and speakers drawn from across Europe and North America, who testify to the creative community Hammer has inspired.
Hammer will be present at each screening, and the programme will be punctuated with films, presentations and interventions by friends, colleagues, and filmmakers whom she considers crucial cultural allies, including Scott Miller Berry, Stan Brakhage, Gina Carducci, Shirley Clarke, Maya Deren, Cecilia Dougherty, John Greyson, Emma Hedditch, William E. Jones, Elisabeth Lebovici, Emily Mode, Gunvor Nelson, Liz Rosenfeld, Kjerstin Rossi, Emily Roysdon, Chick Strand, Chris Vargas, Andrea Weiss, Chris Welsby, Greg Youmans and more.
Hammer states: ‘As an experimental filmmaker and lesbian feminist, I have advocated that radical content deserves radical form.’ She has fearlessly pursued innovation from her earliest experiments with sexuality and feminist identity in the 1960s and 1970s to her stunning perceptual and optical printing experiments during the 1980s and the documentaries she continues to make that unearth secret histories and give voice to those traditionally without one. Her films have transformed the screen into an active and experimental field that powerfully brings together images and the bodies they represent.
Curated by Stuart Comer and Barbara Hammer
Supported by Maja Hoffmann / LUMA Foundation
Programme One
Maya Deren and Me
Friday 3 February 2012, 19.00
Programme Two
Hammer Super 8
Saturday 4 February 2012, 19.00
Programme Three
For An Active Cinema
Sunday 5 February 2012, 17.00
Programme Four
Hammer Expanded
Sunday 5 February 2012, 19.00
Turbine Hall
Free
Programme Five
Resistance
Thursday 9 February 2012, 18.30
Programme Six
Fragile Light
Friday 10 February 2012, 19.00
Programme Seven
Shattering the Mirror Stage
Saturday 11 February 2012, 19.00
Programme Eight
Seeing with a Horse’s Eye
Sunday 12 February 2012, 17.00
Programme Nine
The Goddess Zeitgeist
Tuesday 14 February 2012, 18.30
Programme Ten
Life in the ’80s: Struggles in Conservative Times
Wednesday 15 February 2012, 18.30
Programme Eleven
Hidden Histories
Friday 17 February 2012, 19.00
Programme Twelve
Barbara Hammer Study Day: Performative Lectures and Dialogues
Saturday 18 February 2012, 12.00-17.00
Programme Thirteen
Land and Water
Saturday 18 February 2012, 19.00
Programme Fourteen
Devotion: A Film About Ogawa Productions
Sunday 19 February 2012, 14.00
Programme Fifteen
The Scopophiliac Audience
Sunday 19 February 2012, 17.00
Programme Sixteen
Breaking the Law: Barbara Hammer and William E. Jones
Friday 24 February 2012, 19.00
Programme Seventeen
Superdyke Meets Madame X Meets Falling in Love With Chris and Greg
Conceived by Emily Roysdon
Saturday 25 February 2011, 19.00
Programme Eighteen
Out in South Africa
Sunday 26 February 2012, 14.00
Programme Nineteen
For Florrie
Sunday 26 February 2012, 17.00
Box Office: 020 7887 8888
