Bold, Smart, From the Heart: New Doc Spotlights Shared Strengths of O’Connor & Hammer

BARBARA FOREVER  

…a documentary celebrating lesbian experimental filmmaker Barbara Hammer

Directed by Brydie O’Connor / Edited by Matt Hixon / Score by Taul Katz

2026, 102 min.

Run Begins Friday, September 4 at Film Forum, 209 W. Houston St. off Sixth Ave. 

Tickets: $12 for members, $18 general

Visit FilmForum.org / Box Office: 212-727-8110

BY ROBERTA DEGNORE | “The camera doesn’t make film. Filmmakers do.” Barbara Hammer said it. Brydie O’Connor is the torchbearer for it—and for Hammer’s work—via her acclaimed 2026 documentary Barbara Forever, at NYC’s Film Forum beginning on September 4. (On that date, the 7:45pm screening is followed by a Q&A with O’Connor, co-presented by Filmmaker Magazine.)

It is heartening to see Barbara Hammer (1939-2019) given the recognition and respect that’s long been due. For the uninitiated, Hammer was a one-of-a-kind experimental filmmaker whose 1970s/80s output represents a dedicated, prolonged quest to celebrate queer women. Most of the recognized—and the remembered—filmmakers from that time were men like Jonas Mekas, Stan Brakhage, Andy Warhol… But there were women behind the camera, too. Chantal Ackerman, Yvonne Rainer, Vivienne Dick of the “No Wave” movement in New York, and more artists who today are not widely remembered. And before them, there was the pioneering Maya Deren in the 1950s. These artists made films that deconstructed standard expectations such as imagery and narrative—but it was Hammer who did so alongside a joyful celebration of lesbian physicality and sex (her own and that of others).

In Barbara Forever, director O’Connor shows us Hammer’s story, based in part on having met her subject. That connection can be seen and felt. Her fierce self-determination is a quality shared with Hammer, with both artists focusing that firm resolve on the same quest: To give queer women a voice and the imagery that will document our history. 

O’Connor is her own filmmaker, though, joining the ranks of the luminaries before her. She is newer and singularly brilliant, with an insightful eye and passionate heart that show themselves through a genuine listening-to, and imaging, of women that is respectful and intimate (in films including 2025’s The Roaming Center for Magnetic Alternatives, which follows her through the Midwest on a trek to meet, and to give, LGBTQ filmmakers the chance to digitize their work). Few artists are so generous, and insightful, to preserve queer history by giving other filmmakers a hand.  

Now, O’Connor is poised to be known for her rightfully praised doc, Barbara Forever. She used Hammer’s own films and voice to trace a life of determination, coming of “lesbian age” and enlightenment, and of Hammer’s commitment to leaving a lesbian history for her estimable, planned legacy. O’Connor brings to life Hammer’s focus and toughness. It is a “thank you” for that life. 

Said O’Connor in a Zoom-conducted interview prior to the doc’s Film Forum run, “Barbara Hammer extends beyond her physical death. You know, like her legacy and the impulse that we as a younger generation of queer artists and filmmakers do to continue making work that feels radical and honest, and just inspired by our own experiences… And it’s not just like a younger generation that’s learning about Barbara for the first time… there are a lot of older lesbians who come as well and they’re like, ‘I’ve never heard of Barbara Hammer. Thank god… I’m so glad to know about her…’ ”

O’Connor is more than unforgettable documentaries. It’s a surprise to learn that a scripted short, 2019’s Going Steady, was her first film. It is a creepy-ass gem! With swift deftness, O’Connor exposes the force of desire to demand who you are, and to do anything to make a fantasy come true. It needs no psychological preening nor definitions—it’s on the screen. When you’ve come to the end of your rope in a stifling role, you act to make desire a reality. 

And O’Connor is working on another scripted film—great news. There is more to be done by this intriguing filmmaker. “I’m actually working on something right now as one of my next projects,” the filmmaker noted. “You know how it goes. I feel like I need to have a couple of things kind of going and developing, but it’s something I’ve been working on off and on for a long time. I’d actually done a lab for it in 2020. But now that I feel like I’ve sent my kid off to college, my kid being Barbara Forever, and it’s like out in the world.”

Out in the world, indeed, with O’Connor showing what needs to be said for queer women artists and filmmakers. “It was not necessarily a conscious thing when I was making the film,” observed O’Connor. “But I do think that Barbara, the way that she filmed everything and she would like confessional-style talk to the camera and record herself doing anything—it’s very contemporary. It’s very relatable… I’m hearing from audience members, where they feel so connected to Barbara after watching the movie…It’s very fascinating.”

So too, does O’Connor’s work fascinate. It is bold, smart, and from the heart. Like earlier, experimenting filmmakers, she shows herself in each film’s imagery and story. Just as with the totality of Hammer’s output, it will be well-worth your time to seek out all of O’Connor’s films, to watch first and watch again…

Note: Two programs of shorts by Barbara Hammer will screen during the film’s run.

Barbara Hammer: Love Is Where You Find It includes Double Strength, Dyketactics, Superdyke, Sync Touch, Audience. (Runtime: 77 min.)

Barbara Hammer: Embodied Histories includes The History of the World According to a Lesbian, Sisters!, Snow Job: The Media Hysteria of AIDS, Still Point, Witness: Palestine, A Horse Is Not A Metaphor. (Runtime: 83 min.)

More on Hammer’s films, performances, installations, photography, and other visual art can be found at www.barbarahammer.com.

Find out more about the filmmaker at www.brydieoconnor.com.

DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT | I first entered the world of Barbara Hammer as an undergraduate when I was writing my thesis on Barbara’s early filmography – I was incredibly inspired by the idea of a lesbian artist putting a life on-screen that she hadn’t seen before. I met Barbara through this research work, and became very close with her widow, Florrie Burke, after Barbara’s death in 2019. This led me to a following decade of work on Barbara Hammer – making a short film, and now the feature documentary on Barbara’s life, work, and legacy. I have always viewed Barbara Hammer as a historian in a sense, someone whose life felt in lineage with my own. 

As I got to know Barbara more closely through her archive, I came to understand her not only as a groundbreaking artist, but as a blueprint for how to live against the grain. Barbara was a defiant woman who did things her own way – not through rigid certainty, but through trial and error, curiosity, and play. She allowed herself to experiment, to fail, to begin again, and to follow what felt true to her rather than what was expected. That spirit runs through her films, and her life at large. Barbara’s work insists that you do not need permission to invent yourself, that living on your own terms is an ongoing, imperfect, and very human process. In this way, her life offers something profoundly universal – an invitation for anyone, artist or not, to go out and do what matters to them, boldly and unapologetically. 

As a filmmaker now, I think a lot about specifically queer lineage and those who have come before me – all the lives that have been lived, like mine. I am fascinated by telling stories rooted in the present that are inspired by the past and consider future iterations of queerness and possibilities, and my work interrogates how personal archival collections offer unfiltered perspective into a broader scope of queer lives lived, particularly as we navigate the current political and cultural attitudes toward our queer and trans siblings. Ultimately, my approach to LGBTQIA+ storytelling weaves my own perspective into accessible works that function as individual threads within a shared collective record. In this way, I hope to contribute to the preservation and expansion of queer history – documenting lives both real and imagined. And as a lesbian, I find those can be the same thing. 

Today, Barbara Hammer is a singular and profoundly influential figure within queer cinema and avant-garde art communities around the world, yet her work remains largely unknown to wider audiences. With this film, I hope to expand the context and reach of her legacy – placing her work in conversation with contemporary art, film, education, and queer life – so that broader audiences can encounter it for the first time. I believe that Barbara’s films hold a deep capacity for self-identification and collective connection, and that many more people would see themselves reflected in her work if given the chance. My hope is that this film allows more people to connect with Barbara and to carry her influence forward by expressing themselves and making their mark – on their own terms – as the next generation of visionaries. 

My professional background as an archival producer not only informs my generative artistic practice and methods of approaching and interpreting archival materials, but it also offers the opportunity for me to work with other documentary directors collaboratively. I have had the pleasure of working with – and learning from – queer filmmakers that I deeply admire, including Kirsten Johnson, Kim Reed, and Sian-Pierre Regis.

Spending time with Barbara and her work through making this documentary has given me the language, and a framework, for living my own life with curiosity, ambition, and the desire to connect deeply with others – both artistically and personally. I am so excited to experience how audiences of BARBARA FOREVER internalize – and proliferate – Barbara Hammer’s legacy in their own lives and dreams. 

DIRECTOR, PRODUCER – BRYDIE O’CONNOR | Brydie O’Connor is a filmmaker from Kansas living in New York. Her work has been presented at Sundance, Berlinale, Full Frame, Hot Docs, Le Centre Pompidou, BFI, and The Museum of Modern Art, among other festivals and galleries worldwide. Her debut feature documentary, BARBARA FOREVER (2026), was awarded the Jonathan Oppenheim Editing Award at the Sundance Film Festival, the TEDDY Award for Best Documentary at the Berlinale, and is an honoree at the Maysles Documentary Center Abie Awards. In 2026, Brydie received the Creative Capital State of the Art Prize for New York, the Tom Berman Award for Most Promising Filmmaker at the 64th Ann Arbor Film Festival, and a Special Mention for the John Schlesinger Documentary Award for a first-time filmmaker at the Provincetown International Film Festival. She also works professionally as an archivist on documentaries, art films, video essays, and installations. 

Barbara Hammer Select Filmography:

DYKETACTICS (1974) 

MULTIPLE ORGASM (1976)

DOUBLE STRENGTH (1978)

NO NO NOOKY T.V. (1987)

NITRATE KISSES (1992, Sundance FF) 

TENDER FICTIONS (1995, Sundance FF)
HISTORY LESSONS (2000)

LOVER/OTHER (2006)

A HORSE IS NOT A METAPHOR (2008, Berlin FF Teddy Award)

GENERATIONS (2010, Berlin FF Teddy Award)

MAYA DEREN’S SINK (2011, Berlin FF Teddy Award)

WELCOME TO THIS HOUSE (2015)

EVIDENTIARY BODIES (2018)

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