The Melbourne Cinémathèque & ACMI present
History Lessons
When
Wed 26 Oct 2022
Hammer’s final instalment in the “Queer History Trilogy” (Nitrate Kisses was the first) surveys and disputes the negative historical depiction of lesbians by the medical, educational, religious and legal establishments, alongside pornography and the media. The juxtaposition of archival documentary footage with early lesbian cinema and cabaret songs provides an audacious reaffirmation of queer subversion and appropriation.
Also screening on Wed 26 October
Program
Queering the Archive: The Cinema of Barbara Hammer (Wed 26 Oct – Wed 2 Nov)
Nitrate Kisses (1992) – Wed 26 Oct, 7pm
Superdykes! The early films of Barbara Hammer (1974–76) – Wed 26 Oct, 8.35pm
History Lessons (2000) – Wed 26 Oct, 9.25pm
Projecting Light and Bending Time: Barbara Hammer in the 1980s (1982–83) – Wed 2 Nov, 7pm
The Female Closet (1998) – Wed 2 Nov, 8.05pm
About the program
Queering the Archive: The Cinema of Barbara Hammer (Wed 26 Oct – Wed 2 Nov)
Over a career spanning 50 years and more than 80 moving-image works, American filmmaker and visual artist Barbara Hammer (1939–2019) initiated a new kind of cinema made from a distinctively female and lesbian perspective, challenging the assumptions of mainstream culture and opening a discourse for marginalised groups in society. Her personal and experimental films sought to inspire social change and make largely invisible bodies, images and histories seen.
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About Melbourne Cinémathèque
Australia's longest-running film society, Melbourne Cinémathèque screens significant works of international cinema in the medium they were created, the way they would have originally screened.
Melbourne Cinémathèque is self-administered, volunteer-run, not-for-profit and membership-driven.
