WELCOME TO THIS HOUSE
OMAGGIO A BARBARA HAMMER (15 maggio 1939 – 16 marzo 2019)
Immaginaria ha fatto conoscere in Italia alcune delle più grandi figure artistiche e politiche della cultura lesbica e femminista internazionale. Nel 1996 la filosofa, poeta e militante Audre Lorde e nel 1998 la superacclamata cineasta pioniera trasgressiva e visionaria Barbara Hammer. Già nel 1993 Immaginaria proiettava i suoi primi film sperimentali, Dyketatctis, Double Strength, Our Trip, Place Mattes, Synch Touch, Still Point e nel 1998, alla presenza della regista, le dedicava una sezione speciale presentando i suoi più recenti Nitrate Kisses, The Female Closet, Tender Fictions. In questa edizione del Festival vogliamo ancora celebrarla con il suo ultimo splendido documentario.
WELCOME TO THIS HOUSE
Una grande regista racconta una grande poeta. Barbara Hammer, superpremiata cineasta e artista multidisciplinare, autrice di installazioni, performance e film documentari e sperimentali sulla vita, la storia e la sessualità lesbica, pioniera e icona del cinema indipendente, in questo ultimo documentario (seguito nel 2018 dal corto sperimentale Evidentiary Bodies), narra la vita di Elizabeth Bishop (1911-1979), Premio Pulitzer, una delle figure più grandi della poesia del Novecento americano, attraverso le case in cui visse e scrisse, fra Nova Scozia, Key West, Brasile e Cambridge, Massachussets. Narra l’ansietà per l’arte, gli amori, la lunga relazione con l’architetta Carlota (Lota) Macedo Soares, raccontata anche nel film Reaching for the Moon di Bruno Barreto uscito nel 2013. Hammer risale alla difficile infanzia di Bishop, che ha condizionato la sua vita successiva e determinato quel senso di solitudine esistenziale di cui spesso parla nelle sue poesie e nei carteggi con le poete e i poeti dell’epoca. Benché non si sia mai dichiarata lesbica (la definizione doveva infatti esserle estranea), Bishop ha sempre cercato attivamente la compagnia, l’amore e lo scambio intellettuale con le donne, dal primo campo estivo all’ultima relazione sentimentale con una donna più giovane di lei di 30 anni.
La musica originale del film è composta ed eseguita dalla musicista sperimentale Joan La Barbara, le letture sono affidate alla voce di Kathleen Chalfont, mentre tre attrici rappresentano la presenza fisica di Bishop nei diversi stadi della vita. Completano il ritratto, che non fa sconti alla complessa personalità di Bishop, interviste a personalità del mondo accademico, della cultura, della storia, della letteratura, ma anche alle persone che l’hanno conosciuta nei momenti più bui della sua vita.
TRIBUTE TO BARBARA HAMMER (May 15th 1939 – March 16th 2019)
Immaginaria has brought to in Italy some of the the greatest artistic and political figures of Lesbian and Feminist International culture. In 1996 the militant philosopher and poet Audre Lorde and, in 1998, the acclaimed filmmaker, transgressive and visionary pioneer, Barbara Hammer. As early as 1993, Immaginaria screened her first experimental films, Dyctatctis, Double Strength, Our Trip, Place Mattes, Synch Touch, Still Point and in 1998, in the presence of the director herself, Immaginaria dedicated her a special section, presenting her last works, such as Nitrate Kisses, The Female Closet, Tender Fictions. This festival edition wants to celebrate her once again, thanks to her last, wonderful documentary film.
WELCOME TO THIS HOUSE
A great director narrates a great poet. Barbara Hammer, super-prized filmmaker and multidisciplinary artist, author of art installations, performances and documentary and experimental films about Lesbian life, history and sexuality, pioneer and icon of independent cinema, in this last documentary (followed by the experimental short Evidentiary Bodies), narrates one of the greatest figures in American Twentieth century, Pulitzer Prize Elizabeth Bishop (1911-1979), through the houses she lived and wrote in, through Nova Scotia, Key West, Brazil and Cambridge, Massachusetts. The film tells about her anxiety about art, her loves and her long relationship with architect Carlota (Lota) Macedo Soares, also told in the film Reaching for the Moon by Bruno Barreto, released in 2013. Hammer recalls Bishop’s hard childhood, that has influenced her later life and has determined that existential loneliness sense she often talks about in her poems and in her correspondence with poets of her time. Though she never declared herself a Lesbian (in fact the definition had to be foreign to her), Bishop always looked for women’s company, love and intellectual exchange, from her first summer camp up to her last love relationship with a woman thirty years younger than her. The original film soundtrack was composed and performed by the experimental musician Joan La Barbara, the readings are entrusted to Kathleen Chalfont’s voice, while three actresses represent Bishop during different stages of her life. This portrait, that does not discount the complex personality of Bishop, is completed by interviews with personalities from the Academic world, from History, from Literature, but also with people who knew her during the darkest periods of her life.
FILMOGRAFIA
1968 Barbara Ward Will Never Die · Schizy 1972 Elegy · Traveling · Marie and Me · A Brakhage Song 1975 Jane Brakhage · Menses · Superdyke · Psychosynthesis · “X” · A Gay Day · Sisters! · Yellow Hammer · Dyketactics · Song of the Klinking Kup · I Was/I Am · Women’s Rites or Turth is the Daugher of Time 1976 Superdyke Meets Madame X; 28 min., with Max Almy · Women I Love · Stress Scars & Pleasure Wrinkles · Moon Goddess; 15 min., with Gloria Churchman 1979 Available Space · Double Strength · Eggs · Haircut · Dream Age · The Great Goddess · Multiple Orgasm · Home · Sappho 1985 Optic Nerve & andere Kurzfilme · Hot Flash · Would You Like To Meet Your Neighbor? A New York Subway Tape · Doll House · Parisian Blinds · Tourist · See What You Hear What You See · Bent Time · Pearl Diver · New York Loft · Stone Circle · Pools; 9 min., with Barbara Klutinis · Sync Touch · Audience · Our Trip · Pond and Waterfall · Arequipa · Machu Piccu · Pictures for Barbara · Bamboo Xerox · The Lesbos Film 1986 Snow Job: The Media Hysteria of Aids 1988 Endangered · Two Bad Daughters · T.V. Tart · History of the World According to a Lesbian · Bedtime Stories, I, II, III · No No Nooky T.V. · Place Mattes 1990 Still Point · Sanctus 1991 Vital Signs · Dr. Watson’s X-Rays 1992 Nitrate Kisses 1995 Tender Fictions 1998 The Female Closet · Blue Film No. 6: Love Is Where You Find I · Out in South Africa · Shirley Temple and Me 2000 Devotion, A Film about Ogawa Productions · History Lessons 2001 My Babushka: Searching Ukrainian Identities 2003 Resisting Paradise 2006 Lover Other 2007 Diving Women of Jeju-do 2008 A Horse Is Not A Metaphor 2009 Generations; with Gina Carducci, Forum Expanded 2011 2011 Maya Deren’s Sink 2015 Welcome To This House · Lesbian Whale 2018 Evidentiary Bodies
