Nitrate Kisses

In her first feature, after decades as a pioneer of lesbian cinema, Barbara Hammer weaves striking images of four contemporary gay and lesbian couples with footage of an unearthed, forbidden, and invisible history, searching eroded emulsions and images for lost vestiges of queer culture. Questions of historic representation are examined through addressing the margins, between-the-line readings, and images outside of prescribed textual boundaries. Archival footage from Lot in Sodom (1933), often regarded as the first queer film made in the United States, as well as footage from German narrative and documentary films of the thirties, are interwoven with contemporary footage in this multifaceted, haunting documentary. In the words of Barbara Hammer: “Nitrate Kisses questions how history is recorded and encourages the viewer, gay or straight, to save scraps, letters, books, records, and snapshots in order to preserve our 'ordinary' lives as history.”

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Direction: Barbara Hammer

Cinematography: Barbara Hammer

Editing: Barbara Hammer

Producers: Barbara Hammer

Format: DCP

Color: B&W

Production Country: USA

Production Year: 1992

Duration: 65'

Contact: Light Cone

The screening is followed by a discussion with Rico Johnson-Sinclair, Founder of the CineQ Festival and Inclusion Consultant for festivals like the Berlinale and the Cannes iFF.

Barbara Hammer

Filmography

1968 White Cassandra (short)
1974 Dyketactics (short)
1981 Sync Touch (short)
1985 Optic Nerve (short)
1988 Endangered (short)
1992 Nitrate Kisses
1998 The Female Closet
2008 A Horse is Not a Metaphor (short)
2018 Evidentiary Bodies (short)