In the aftermath of the American avant-garde period, media artist Barbara Hammer, armed with two samurai swords, traverses her own body and reborn sexuality. To the rhythm of diary excerpts read aloud and aggressive string music, she chains herself up, buries her head in the sand, and masturbates among her houseplants, while the neighbourhood children watch from outside. Don’t look for reason here: in her associative fury, she throws herself at everything that is forbidden or inappropriate.

Hammer’s mother, however, envisions a more fairy-tale path for her daughter from her Hollywood family, following in the footsteps of Shirley Temple. Things turn out differently. Over the course of her fifty-year career, Hammer emerges as one of the pioneers and champions of lesbian, feminist cinema. Her prolific oeuvre includes no fewer than eighty films. (Flo Vanhorebeek)