ShortList 2023: ‘Love, Barbara’ Sheds New Light on Queer Film Pioneer Barbara Hammer
thewrap.com“Love, Barbara” was selected as a finalist in this year’s ShortList Film Festival, presented by TheWrap. You can watch the films and vote for your favorite here.Whether you’re a fan of Barbara Hammer’s work or a complete neophyte, “Love, Barbara” welcomes you with open arms.
A groundbreaking director in the lesbian film genre, Hammer’s work was iconoclastic and experimental, focused on offering a window into lesbian life and relationships with artistry and innovation.
What “Love, Barbara” offers that other overviews of Hammer’s work might have missed is the perspective of Florrie R. Burke, the filmmaker’s lover for 31 years who, after Hammer’s death in 2019, dedicated herself to preserving her legacy for posterity.
Director of the documentary Brydie O’Connor sat down with TheWrap to discuss her affection and admiration for Hammer’s work, which ultimately led her to Burke and offered new insight into the artist whose love for lesbians burned so bright. When did you first learn about Barbara Hammer and how did she come to be so important to you?I actually wrote my thesis on Barbara and her early filmography in the ’70s, so I was focused [on] some of her early films like “Dyketactics.” I studied American Studies in History and I was really interested in lesbian cinema throughout history and I came across Barbara Hammer’s work and learned of her at that time, as a queer pioneer of lesbian film.
