‘Barbara Forever’ brings lesbian film pioneer Barbara Hammer back to screen - Film Forum September 4

 

‘Barbara Forever’ brings lesbian film pioneer Barbara Hammer back to screen

Brydie O’Connor’s award-winning documentary, executive-produced by Kristen Stewart, opens September 4 at Film Forum in New York.

Barbara Hammer spent more than five decades making the lives, bodies, and desires of lesbians visible on film. Now, a new documentary built largely from her personal archive revisits the work and final years of one of queer cinema’s most influential artists.

“Barbara Forever,” directed by Brydie O’Connor, will make its U.S. theatrical premiere on Friday, September 4, at Film Forum in New York (209 W. Houston Street in Manhattan). The film is executive-produced by Kristen Stewart, Dylan Meyer, Christine Vachon, and Maggie McLean.

Hammer, who died in 2019 at 79, created an expansive body of experimental films that placed lesbian sexuality, pleasure, and political life at their center. O’Connor draws from five decades of Hammer’s footage, along with audio diaries and contemporary conversations with Florrie Burke, Hammer’s longtime partner. The result is both an intimate portrait and an introduction to a filmmaker who worked outside conventional systems, often creating a visual language for lives that had been ignored or erased.

“Barbara Hammer gave me a language for making films without asking permission,” said filmmaker Cheryl Dunye of the documentary, calling it “smart, unapologetically queer and formally alive.”

“Barbara Forever” premiered at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival, where it received the Jonathan Oppenheim Editing Award. It later won the Teddy Award for best documentary at the Berlin Film Festival and the outstanding documentary feature award at San Francisco’s Frameline festival.

Film Forum will also present two programs of Hammer’s short films during the documentary’s run. “Love Is Where You Find It” includes “Dyketactics,” “Superdyke,” and “Double Strength,” while “Embodied Histories” brings together films addressing feminism, AIDS, Palestine, illness, and lesbian history.

The 102-minute documentary was produced by Elijah Stevens, Claire Edelman, and O’Connor. Matt Hixon edited the film, with an original score by Taul Katz. Strand Releasing is handling the U.S. release.