Barbara Forever Review: If you’ve ever thought, ‘Where’s the lesbian history?’, Barbara Hammer would probably wink at you and say, “Make it yourself, darling.”
And she did. Over 80 times. The new documentary ‘Barbara Forever’, directed by Brydie O’Connor, is a time capsule, a love letter, and a riot of lesbian brilliance all rolled into one. Think of it as part history lesson, part diary, all heart. Hammer, who passed away in 2019, isn’t just the subject. She is everywhere, in the frame and in spirit. And yes, she’s still mischievous, gap-toothed grin and all, making Sundance 1993 look like the hottest lesbian party you weren’t invited to.
Personal footage, big emotions
What makes ‘Barbara Forever’ feel so alive is the way O’Connor digs into Hammer’s personal archive. Half a century of films, home videos, camcorder fuzz, and warm beige hues of indoor gatherings give the film a tactile quality.
You almost smell the winter jackets, the hardwood floors, the excitement of queer spaces coming to life. Early footage from ‘Nitrate Kisses’ at Sundance is classic: a man deadpans to camera, “I see more baby dykes running around than I ever have before, and that’s all your fault, Barbara.”
Then Barbara pops up, ushanka hat on, full of warmth, energy, and that playful aura that made her a legend.
Watching it feels like sitting in someone’s living room as history unfolds, but the history is very much alive, sensual, political, tender, and radical all at once.
Lesbian love, celebrated out loud
This documentary isn’t just about Hammer’s work. It’s about love. Her long-term partner, Florrie R Burke, appears throughout, spilling admiration and devotion. It’s a rare and beautiful thing to see lesbian love celebrated with such fullness and intimacy on screen.
Hammer’s films often focus on the same themes: eroticism, care, ritual, and joy. But here, we see it mirrored in real life.
You feel the tenderness and the intensity, a love not just for people but for a life lived authentically. And that, perhaps, is Hammer’s ultimate gift. She made lesbian desire, identity, history feel normal, celebratory, cinematic.
Building a new lesbian cinema
Barbara Hammer didn’t just make films. She actually invented a visual language. Her work helped define a “new lesbian aesthetic,” an iconography of the lesbian body that was revolutionary. She turned away from patriarchal norms and toward self-definition. And, she created a cinematic universe where women’s eroticism, care, and joy could exist without shame or voyeurism.
Early on, her films were fiery and reactive. Anger at the patriarchy would spill onto the screen. But over time, works like ‘I WAS/I AM’, ‘X’, and ‘Psychosynthesis’ synthesised this energy into something more complex.
She explored Jungian archetypes, collaging selves, emotions, and identities into a new mythology of lesbian existence. It wasn’t just art. It was survival, affirmation, liberation.
Erotic, but never exploitative
Let’s get one thing straight. Barbara Hammer’s films are erotic, but not pornographic. The camera isn’t a controlling male gaze. It’s curious, tender, and exploratory. Women’s bodies in her films are shown in contexts of love, care, and ritual, not domination.
Compare this to Constance Beeson’s ‘Holding’, and the difference is clear. Beeson’s distant camera creates alienation; Hammer’s lens invites intimacy. She made eroticism inclusive, playful, and celebratory, and never prescriptive.
There’s a subtle brilliance in this. Hammer’s films ask: ‘This is one way to love and live. There are others too.’ In doing so, she expanded not just cinema, but imagination.
Ritual, performance, radical joy
One of Hammer’s most fascinating tools was ritual. By creating cinematic rituals, she challenged habitual ways of seeing, breaking down patriarchal mythology and constructing alternative worlds for women. Scenes in ‘Superdyke’, for instance, show diverse groups of naked women walking hand-in-hand through meadows; ritualised, erotic, tender, unifying. It’s playful yet profound.
Hammer asks us to imagine worlds where intimacy, eroticism coexist freely. Watching them, you feel connected to something profoundly human.
A film for cinephiles, scholars (and everyone)
Yes, ‘Barbara Forever’ is a treasure trove for historians, queer theorists, film scholars. But it’s not dry or academic. It’s funny, charming, brimming with human energy. Whether you’re in it for lesbian history, feminist filmmaking, or just a good story of love and rebellion, this film delivers.
For cinephiles, it’s a gold mine of archival footage and avant-garde experiments. For casual viewers, it’s a journey into the life of a woman who refused to wait for representation. She made it herself.
Barbara Hammer beyond the screen
Barbara Hammer’s influence is felt far beyond her films. She helped redefine what cinema could do: show difference, create eroticism without exploitation, and make invisible histories visible. She crafted a new language for the lesbian body, and through ritual, collage, and sensitivity, she made art that was personal, political, and profoundly playful.
‘Barbara Forever’ captures this spirit perfectly. O’Connor curates Hammer’s work with care letting the footage speak for itself while threading a narrative that’s affectionate, informative, celebratory. The result is a film that feels alive, urgent, necessary.
If you’ve ever wondered what it would feel like to step into a world made entirely for queer women, here it is. Barbara Hammer made it, and now ‘Barbara Forever’ invites you to walk through it with her.
