Barbara Hammer

A loud and constantly innovative voice in independent film, Barbara Hammer was born in 1939 in California. From a young age, she was encouraged to be pretty and feminine, her mother constantly forcing the images of child actors like Shirley Temple on her daughter. Her grandmother, a Ukrainian immigrant, worked as a cook for the famous actress Lillian Gish, and at one point, little Barbara and her mother were introduced to D. W. Griffith. Barbara, however, did not want to be a child star, and when she became of age, found a new way to express herself. Barbara made her first film, in 1974, and since then has made somewhere between 80 and 100 films and videos. Many of her works have been very controversial, dealing often with sex, gender, society and history. Her first feature film, Nitrate Kisses, appeared in 1992.