Political Bodies

Regardless of their subject, the films of Barbara Hammer are driven by an urge, as she describes it, to “find the political.” The varied works in this program include her 1992 feature-debut documentary Nitrate Kisses, an exploration of hidden queer histories; Would You Like to Meet Your Neighbor? A New York Subway Tape (1985), a playful, performative video that features Hammer (outfitted in a costume made from subway maps) interviewing fellow passengers; and Snow Job: The Media Hysteria of AIDS (1986). (program approx. 100 mins.)

Program lineup

Snow Job, The Media Hysteria of AIDS
(1986, 7:42 mins., video)

Would You Like to Meet Your Neighbor? A New York Subway Tape
(1985, 12:39 mins., video)

Nitrate Kisses
(1992, 67 mins., 16mm)
Print courtesy of the Academy Film Archive.

• View the complete Barbara Hammer: The Body in Film series
• More about the exhibition Barbara Hammer: In This Body

Image: Nitrate Kisses, image courtesy of The Barbara Hammer Estate and Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI), New York