8th(2006)
Lover Other: The Story of Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore
Barbara HAMMER
- USA
- 2005
- 55min
- Beta
- color/black and white
SYNOPSIS
Lover Other, a new film from Barbara Hammer, explores the life of Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore, the French Surrealist artists, social outcasts, and lovers. Claude and Marcel are the first artists to bring lesbian sexuality to the arts. Activists who fought against German Fascism through their artistic creations during World War II, they also are half sisters and lovers breaking social taboos. Hammer wewaves interviews and historical footage together, along with an experimental style that combines the artists’ surrealist works with reenactments of their lives with actors. Her singular strategy of combining experiment film/video art with a documentary aesthetic deconstructs the myth of realism in documentary film, expanding its denotation. The epilogue to this homage to Claude and Marcel reveals how the art of society’s “others” is consumed in the present, to the tune of $40,000 at an art auction. Hammer demonstrates an immense affection for these lovers, and her affection leaves us an incredible chemical reaction as well. (Denise Hyuk-sang Lee)
PROGRAM NOTE
Lover Other, a new film from Barbara Hammer, explores the life of Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore, the French Surrealist artists, social outcasts, and lovers. Claude and Marcel are the first artists to bring lesbian sexuality to the arts. Activists who fought against German Fascism through their artistic creations during World War II, they also are half sisters and lovers breaking social taboos. Hammer wewaves interviews and historical footage together, along with an experimental style that combines the artists’ surrealist works with reenactments of their lives with actors. Her singular strategy of combining experiment film/video art with a documentary aesthetic deconstructs the myth of realism in documentary film, expanding its denotation. The epilogue to this homage to Claude and Marcel reveals how the art of society’s “others” is consumed in the present, to the tune of $40,000 at an art auction. Hammer demonstrates an immense affection for these lovers, and her affection leaves us an incredible chemical reaction as well. (Denise Hyuk-sang Lee)
Director
-
Barbara HAMMERBarbara HAMMER
Barbara HAMMER is an internationally recognized film artist who has made 80 films/videos making a significant contribution to lesbian and gay cinema. Her experimental films of the 1970’s often dealt with taboo subjects such as menstruation, female orgasm, and lesbian sexuality. In the 80’s, she used optical printing to explore perception and the fragility of 16mm film life itself. Her documentaries tell the stories of marginalized people who have been hidden from history and are often essay films which are multileveled and engaging audiences with the goal of activating them to make social change.
Credit
- ProducerBarbara Hammer
- Cast Kathleen Chalfant, Marty Pottenger
- Screenwriter Barbara Hammer, Claude Cahun
- Cinematography Barbara Hammer, Cathy Cook
- Editor Barbara Hammer
- Music Pamela Z
