Barbara Hammer’s History Lessons as a documentary utopia

This article is devoted to the third part of Barbara Hammer’s documentary trilogy, History Lessons. The author analyzes and interprets the form and message of this post-queer essay, with the aim of describing its formula in relation to the mockumentary and found-footage film conventions. She goes ba...

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Main Author: Monika Talarczyk-Gubała
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Adam Mickiewicz University Press 2018-04-01
Series:Images
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Online Access:https://pressto.amu.edu.pl/index.php/i/article/view/12579
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author Monika Talarczyk-Gubała
author_facet Monika Talarczyk-Gubała
author_sort Monika Talarczyk-Gubała
collection DOAJ
description This article is devoted to the third part of Barbara Hammer’s documentary trilogy, History Lessons. The author analyzes and interprets the form and message of this post-queer essay, with the aim of describing its formula in relation to the mockumentary and found-footage film conventions. She goes back to the pioneer of found footage in the history of world cinema, Esfir Shub, and the position of women in production culture. She refers to Hammer’s debut film, Dyketactics (1974), to describe Hammer’s artistic and political tactic, consisting of intercepting images of women, rooted in visual history, and the subversive quotation of these images against the idea and context of the original. Dyketactics in History Lessons is about quoting archival materials from the genres of documentary, popular science and pornography with the aim of writing the history of the lives of lesbians in the US from the period before the Stonewall riots, where there is very little coverage of the story. The falsifying of archival materials through the editing manipulation of imagery and sound paradoxically uncovers not so much the truth about the lives of lesbians, as what seems to be hidden in images created with a completely different aim than telling the herstory of American women of various orientations and races.
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series Images
spelling doaj-art-26e2039d2bf4453eb762b16f237d09382025-08-20T03:52:52ZengAdam Mickiewicz University PressImages1731-450X2720-040X2018-04-01213010.14746/i.2017.30.07.Barbara Hammer’s History Lessons as a documentary utopiaMonika Talarczyk-Gubała0Department of Film Art Organization Polish Nation Filmschool in ŁódźThis article is devoted to the third part of Barbara Hammer’s documentary trilogy, History Lessons. The author analyzes and interprets the form and message of this post-queer essay, with the aim of describing its formula in relation to the mockumentary and found-footage film conventions. She goes back to the pioneer of found footage in the history of world cinema, Esfir Shub, and the position of women in production culture. She refers to Hammer’s debut film, Dyketactics (1974), to describe Hammer’s artistic and political tactic, consisting of intercepting images of women, rooted in visual history, and the subversive quotation of these images against the idea and context of the original. Dyketactics in History Lessons is about quoting archival materials from the genres of documentary, popular science and pornography with the aim of writing the history of the lives of lesbians in the US from the period before the Stonewall riots, where there is very little coverage of the story. The falsifying of archival materials through the editing manipulation of imagery and sound paradoxically uncovers not so much the truth about the lives of lesbians, as what seems to be hidden in images created with a completely different aim than telling the herstory of American women of various orientations and races. https://pressto.amu.edu.pl/index.php/i/article/view/12579found footagelesbian filmwomen’s cinemamock-documentaryBarbara Hammer
spellingShingle Monika Talarczyk-Gubała
Barbara Hammer’s History Lessons as a documentary utopia
Images
found footage
lesbian film
women’s cinema
mock-documentary
Barbara Hammer
title Barbara Hammer’s History Lessons as a documentary utopia
title_full Barbara Hammer’s History Lessons as a documentary utopia
title_fullStr Barbara Hammer’s History Lessons as a documentary utopia
title_full_unstemmed Barbara Hammer’s History Lessons as a documentary utopia
title_short Barbara Hammer’s History Lessons as a documentary utopia
title_sort barbara hammer s history lessons as a documentary utopia
topic found footage
lesbian film
women’s cinema
mock-documentary
Barbara Hammer
url https://pressto.amu.edu.pl/index.php/i/article/view/12579
work_keys_str_mv AT monikatalarczykgubała barbarahammershistorylessonsasadocumentaryutopia