American feminist filmmaker known for being one of the pioneers of lesbian film whose career spanned over 40 years. Hammer is known for having created experimental films dealing with women’s issues such as gender roles, lesbian relationships and coping with aging and family. Hammer is responsible for some of the first lesbian-made films in history, including Dyketactics (1974) and Women I Love (1976).
Hammer was a graduate of the University of California at Los Angeles with a Bachelor’s degree in psychology. She also held two Master’s degrees from San Francisco State University, one in English literature and one in film. She also took postgraduate classes in the field of digital media.
In her early thirties, Hammer was married and teaching at a community college in Santa Rosa, California. Around this time she came out as a lesbian, after talking with another student in a Feminist group. In 1974 she filmed Dyketactics, which is widely considered one of the first lesbian films.
She received the first Shirley Clarke Avant-Garde Filmmaker Award in October 2006, the Women In Film Award from the St. Louis International Film Festival in 2006, and in 2009 Barbara Hammer received the Teddy Award for the best short film for her film ‘A Horse Is Not A Metaphor’ at The International Berlin Film Festival.
In 2010, Hammer published her autobiography, HAMMER! Making Movies Out of Sex and Life, which addresses her personal history and her philosophies on art.
She taught film at The European Graduate School in Saas-Fee, Switzerland.
In 2006, Hammer was diagnosed with stage 3 ovarian cancer. After 12 years of chemotherapy, she fought for the right of self euthanasia. She referenced this in her works, such as her 2009 film A Horse is Not a Metaphor, in which she expresses the ups and downs of a cancer patient. Through her experience, she became an advocate for Right to Die and fought for the New York Medical Aid in Dying Act. Hammer died from ovarian cancer on 15 March 2019, aged 79. She had been receiving palliative hospice care at the time of her death.
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