Sensual Bodies

Hammer’s bold, strikingly sensuous representations of lesbian sexuality made her a true maverick of experimental cinema. This program highlights Hammer’s interest in the sensory experience of touch, both as a physical pleasure and as a strategy for image-making. The works in this program are among her most visually and sonically opulent and include the arresting Multiple Orgasm (1977) as well as Sync Touch (1981), Psychosynthesis (1975), and Place Mattes (1987). (program approx. 75 mins.)

Program lineup

Sync Touch
(1981, 10:07 mins., 16mm)
New print courtesy of the Academy Film Archive.

Stress Scars and Pleasure Wrinkles
(1976, 17:45 mins., video)

Multiple Orgasm
(1977, 5:32 mins., 16mm)
Restored by Electronic Arts Intermix and the Academy Film Archive through the National Film Preservation Foundation’s Avant-Garde Masters Grant program and The Film Foundation. Funding provided by the George Lucas Family Foundation.

Place Mattes
(1987, 7:36 mins., 16mm)
Restored by the Academy Film Archive.

Women I Love
(1976, 22:39 mins., 16mm)
Restored by Electronic Arts Intermix and the Academy Film Archive through the National Film Preservation Foundation's Avant-Garde Masters Grant program and The Film Foundation. Funding provided by the George Lucas Family Foundation.

PsychoSynthesis
(1975, 6:05 mins., 16mm)
Restored by Electronic Arts Intermix and the Academy Film Archive through the National Film Preservation Foundation’s Avant-Garde Masters Grant program and The Film Foundation. Funding provided by the George Lucas Family Foundation.

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

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