Film series screening throughout the summer include Moons and Celestial Bodies, presented in conjunction with the exhibition By the Light of the Silvery Moon: A Century of Lunar Photographs that coincides with the 50th anniversary of the first human steps on the moon.

Two programs celebrate the life and work of two of the most influential experimental filmmakers of our time. Essential Cinema: Jonas Mekas explores his wide-ranging work that encompassed five decades of visionary films and videos, many of which took the form of intimate visual diaries. Barbara Hammer: Boundless explores her themes of lesbian identity, politics, personal narrative, and visceral manifestations of pleasure, pain, aging, and infirmity.

Films are shown in the East Building Auditorium unless otherwise noted. Films are screened in original formats, when possible. Seating for all events is on a first-come, first-seated basis. Doors open approximately 30 minutes before each show. For more information, visit nga.gov/film.

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Barbara Hammer: Boundless
September 7-22
For more than 50 years, artist and filmmaker Barbara Hammer (1939-2019) created works unique in sensibility, subject matter, and influence. Exploring lesbian identity, politics, and personal narrative, and delving into visceral manifestations of pleasure, pain, aging, and infirmity, Hammer used the camera as an extension of her body to discover ways of communicating experience. Her purposeful engagement with audiences fostered and influenced many generations of filmmakers, and her groundbreaking work shaped contemporary film culture in multiple ways. This series includes examples of films and videos that Hammer made in shorter formats, although her oeuvre also embraced feature-length and performance works. With special thanks to Florrie Burke, and to Carmel Curtis and Joan Hawkins who organized the first iteration of Barbara Hammer: Boundless at Indiana University. The series includes new prints courtesy of the Academy Film Archive, as well as restorations by Electronic Arts Intermix and the Academy through the National Film Preservation Foundation and the Film Foundation.

The Beginning: Early Short Films, 1968-1980
September 7, 2:00 p.m.
From the start of her filmmaking practice, Barbara Hammer was committed to visibility through portraiture-of herself, others, and communities of women. This program of new 16mm prints includes Schizy (1968, from 8mm), where the artist confronts gender play; Jane Brakhage (1975), a portrait of well-known experimental filmmaker Stan Brakhage’s first wife; and Double Strength (1978), a poetic portrayal of Hammer’s relationship with trapeze artist Terry Sendgraff, among other titles. (Total running time 94 minutes)

The Middle: Short Films from the 1980s
September 7, 4:00 p.m.
Developing her optical printing techniques and utilizing the increasingly accessible mediums of analogue video and early computer imagery, Barbara Hammer’s work in the 1980s continued to address media representations of women, including women’s views of their own sexuality, as opposed to the male view. Included are Sync Touch (1981), “a lesbian/feminist aesthetic proposing the connection between touch and sight to be the basis for a ‘new cinema'” (Canyon Cinema); Audience (1982), a self-described diary of audience reactions from several public and international presentations of Hammer’s work; and the critique Snow Job: The Media Hysteria of AIDS (1988), among other titles. (Total running time 80 minutes)

Hammer Time: Collaboration and Community
Jennifer Lange, KJ Mohr, Lynne Sachs, and Deborah Stratman in person
September 8, 4:00 p.m.
Barbara Hammer developed unique artistic collaborations with other filmmakers and supporters. This event includes screenings and discussions with several collaborating artists and with Jennifer Lange, curator of Film/Video at the Wexner Center for the Arts, an artist-in-residence program where Hammer produced and screened many works. Titles include Maya Deren’s Sink (2011, 30 minutes), filmed on location (with KJ Mohr) at Deren’s homes in New York City and Los Angeles; Vever (for Barbara) (Deborah Stratman, 2019, 12 minutes), incorporating footage Hammer recorded in 1970s Guatemala; and two recent titles by Lynne Sachs: a short triptych of influential artists, Carolee, Barbara, and Gunvor(2018, 8 minutes), and A Month of Single Frames (2019, 15 minutes). (Total running time 65 minutes)

The Never Ending
September 22, 4:00 p.m.
Barbara Hammer’s focus on physicality and the body continued throughout her life, as did a sustained exploration into the aging process, the ramifications of illness, and an unflinching perspective on the act of dying. Sanctus (1990, 19 minutes) is woven from X-ray footage recorded in the 1950s by Dr. James Sibley Watson; it is followed by A Horse Is Not a Metaphor (2008, 30 minutes), the artist’s depiction of her own struggle with the diagnoses and treatment of ovarian cancer. The program concludes with a single-channel version of the multichannel installation Evidentiary Bodies (2018, 11 minutes), Hammer’s last completed work. (Total running time 60 minutes)