Evidentiary Bodies

A life lived within the sprocket holes of film can still dance.
The beauty of the human body, although maimed, dances forward.
Hope does not live eternal but daily.

An audience immersed in three screens to feel the encasement of illness, the isolation of the material body. The forever ongoing chain of film runs but cannot hold up the protagonist. Time is flexible as the body transforms and the film loops. A trilogy of the self, witness of decline and suffering, performing the unthinkable, inevitable, dance of death. Three surrounds, enfolds, embraces the one who cannot stand alone.
We, as human beings on a small globe, united by evolutionary structure and biological DNA have a chance to come together through the experience of empathy and identification with the sensitive body. An unspoken plea for viewers to engage with compassion, to experience vulnerability, to know through evidence this body is their body.
by Barbara Hammer
with Barbara Hammer
USA 2018 Without dialogue 10’ Colour & Black/White

With

  • Barbara Hammer

Crew

Director Barbara Hammer
Cinematography Angel Favorite
Editing Barbara Hammer
Music Norman Scott Johnson
Sound Design Barbara Hammer
Sound David Laurence Goldman
Production Design Barbara Hammer
Producer Barbara Hammer

Produced by

Barbara Hammer

Barbara Hammer, born in 1939 in Hollywood, USA, lives and works in New York City as a visual artist and filmmaker. Her diverse praxis for the past 40 years has a resonating impact on young artists today. Her work has been shown in major biennials and is included in several permanent collections. She has had major retrospectives in art institutions worldwide and is the author of “Hammer! Making Movies Out of Sex and Life” (Feminist Press 2009). Her films A Horse is not a Metaphor (2008), Generations (2010), and Maya Deren’s Sink (2011) received Teddy Awards.

Filmography (selection)

1968 Barbara Ward Will Never Die · Schizy 1972 Elegy · Traveling · Marie and Me · A Brakhage Song 1975 Jane Brakhage · Menses · Superdyke · Psychosynthesis · “X” · A Gay Day · Sisters! · Yellow Hammer · Dyketactics · Song of the Klinking Kup · I Was/I Am · Women’s Rites or Turth is the Daugher of Time 1976 Superdyke Meets Madame X; 28 min., with Max Almy · Women I Love · Stress Scars & Pleasure Wrinkles · Moon Goddess; 15 min., with Gloria Churchman 1979 Available Space · Double Strength · Eggs · Haircut · Dream Age · The Great Goddess · Multiple Orgasm · Home · Sappho 1985 Optic Nerve & andere Kurzfilme · Hot Flash · Would You Like To Meet Your Neighbor? A New York Subway Tape · Doll House · Parisian Blinds · Tourist · See What You Hear What You See · Bent Time · Pearl Diver · New York Loft · Stone Circle · Pools; 9 min., with Barbara Klutinis · Sync Touch · Audience · Our Trip · Pond and Waterfall · Arequipa · Machu Piccu · Pictures for Barbara · Bamboo Xerox · The Lesbos Film 1986 Snow Job: The Media Hysteria of Aids 1988 Endangered · Two Bad Daughters · T.V. Tart · History of the World According to a Lesbian · Bedtime Stories, I, II, III · No No Nooky T.V. · Place Mattes 1990 Still Point · Sanctus 1991 Vital Signs · Dr. Watson’s X-Rays 1992 Nitrate Kisses 1995 Tender Fictions 1998 The Female Closet · Blue Film No. 6: Love Is Where You Find I · Out in South Africa · Shirley Temple and Me 2000 Devotion, A Film about Ogawa Productions · History Lessons 2001 My Babushka: Searching Ukrainian Identities 2003 Resisting Paradise 2006 Lover Other 2007 Diving Women of Jeju-do 2008 A Horse Is Not A Metaphor 2009 Generations; with Gina Carducci, Forum Expanded 2011 2011 Maya Deren's Sink 2015 Welcome To This House · Lesbian Whale 2018 Evidentiary Bodies

Bio- & filmography as of Berlinale 2018