The Pleasure of Discovery film programme is dedicated to the films of Barbara Hammer, with a particular focus on those from the 1980s. While her early 1970s works are committed to social realism and emerged from a “perspective of participation”*, as Natascha Frankenberg describes, her films from the 1980s become significantly more abstract. The focus here shifts to an interest in cinematic material and form. This phase is characterised by fragmentary images, superimpositions, and a playful approach to light, colour, and texture. However, Hammer’s central concern remains the same: the depiction of lesbian desire. She explores how non-normative sexualities and identities can be made visible through abstract, poetic and unfamiliar visual languages. Thus, her films from this period are not only formal experiments, but also queer-political interventions.

Programme

Double Strength, 1978, 16 mm (digitalisiert), Ton, 16 Min.
Vital Signs, 1991, 16 mm (digitalisiert), Ton, 10 Min.
Arequipa, 1981, 16 mm, o. Ton, 12 Min.
Sync Touch, 1981, 16 mm, Ton, 12 Min.
Place Mattes, 1987, 16 mm, o. Ton, 8 Min.