May 5, 2022
Virtual
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Barbara Hammer, an American director, explores her Ukrainian roots in My Babushka: Searching Ukrainian Identities (2001). While Hammer had a very important career in the experimental field, this film is more traditional—a personal and political exploration of the country that resonates so much in today’s world. Hammer travels to Ukraine to meet her relatives and older women from her family’s village, experiencing a wealth of emotion as she does and bearing witness to a country transforming. Indeed, Ukrainians are at the moment in their history when feminists and LGBTQ+ movements have begun to express their freedom. The babushki we see in the film are as much a symbol of the strong roots of the country as a connection to its moving present.