Barbara Hammer was a legendary filmmaker who could be seen as the American equivalent to Chantal Akerman as the pioneer in lesbian filmmaking from lesbian directors. As a queer woman making films which included nudity and sex, it took her years to finally receive the recognition she deserved as a profound artist, but in the modern era she is considered a cult icon with queer women looking to see themselves and how they love on screen.
Byrdie O’Connor directs Barbara Forever in what has become an increasingly popular style. A postmortem look into an artist by using a combination of their professional archive, personal home recordings, and memories from loved ones. Hammer makes an especially interesting topic for a documentary in this design as a combination of her artistic medium of choice being film and her experimental stylings provide variety and flavor to the imagery on screen.
As a counter cultural figure, Hammer’s story might have a limited audience, but a moment from the film documenting a time in which she spoke to an elementary school class and presented them with the concept of experimental filmmaking proves that the power of art can captivate any audience if they are willing to give it a chance, though as many of her films include explicit lovemaking between women some curation is important when showing her work to children.
While eventually the postmortem reflection documentary may reach the same staleness that plagues talking-head documentaries, as long as they can continue to use firsthand footage and center a person as fascinating as Barbara Hammer, they have a long life ahead of them.
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