Barbara Hammer
Barbara Hammer is an experimental lesbian filmmaker. She was born on May 15, 1939 in Hollywood, California. She is a graduate of the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) with a degree in Psychology. Hammer also holds two Master of Arts degrees from San Francisco State University: one English Literature and one in Film. She also took postgraduate classes in the field of digital media.
Hammer started creating experimental films in her early thirties. She was married and teaching at a community college in Santa Rosa. Also in her early thirties she came out as a lesbian after talking with another student in a Women's Lib group.
Barbara Hammer is known for creating groundbreaking experimental films dealing with women's issues on gender roles, lesbian relationships and coping with ageing and family. Hammer is responsible for some of the first lesbian-made films in history, including such landmarks experimental shots as Dyketactics (1974) and Women I Love (1976)
Bibliography
- Alexandra Juhasz, editor, Women of vision : histories in feminist film and video, Minneapolis, Minn. : University of Minnesota Press 2001