Barbara Hammer was making lesbian films before many of you were even born. Her film Dyketactics marked the first time that a lesbian had made a film that featured lesbian sex onscreen and was described as an advert for lesbianism. Since then Hammer has been making films continuously, including documentaries, that inspire, outrage and instruct. This month shell be in the UK introducing a selection of her films at the Lux in London and talking about her documentary Resisting Paradise at the London Lesbian and Gay Film festival. Dont miss it. In the meantime heres a little interview with her.

I know you through the films you made about lesbians in the 70s. What were the greatest challenges of making films about lesbians at that time?
I didnt find any challenge. I was thrilled with being a lesbian and films poured out one after the other. Even at the State University, where I was getting an MA in film and expected a clamour at Film Finals when I screened Dyketactics in 1974 for the first time, I was only applauded by the professors who came up to congratulate me afterwards. Surprise!

Whats the film that youve always wanted to make but never had the time, resources, cash to do?
I usually make every film I want to make. I did have a script for Hot Flash, a narrative script, that didnt get funded so I only shot the first 17 pages of the script. If I had finished it - ie. received funding to be able to pay the actors, crew, etc - I might have gone a different route, a more narrative route.

Where do you fit in to the cinema world? Are you a Hollywood/ arthouse/ Sundance/ lesbian and gay filmmaker?
All of the above except Hollywood (but I was born in Hollywood Hospital, so maybe that counts!). I dont worry where I fit in. I think the categories and institutions can expand to include me and my work. I see myself as a proud maverick making changes. If I stop doing that, why make films? To repeat is to die.

Whats the appeal of documentary making for you?
I get to explore an idea in an expanded way and I get to try to change the traditional form of documentary. The television standard broadcast form, the Ken Burns form, is like patterned documentary. If I made traditional documentary, it would be like eating the same cereal for breakfast every day of the year and not even getting adequate nutrition from it.

What are you working on now?
A secret film set in England.

What are your film making ambitions?
To make a contribution to cinema through my work, to not be forgotten.

Whats your advice to inexperienced lesbian film makers?
Are they inexperienced lesbians? Or inexperienced film makers? The answer to both: you only live once, go for it!

Whats your favourite lesbian film of all time?
Uh oh, I have to ponder. Does a bisexual film count? Maya Deren was bisexual and I still think her work, her short films of the 40s, is outstanding and set the standard for those of us starting out in the 70s.

Is there anything else youd like to add?
It will be so fine to be back in London and screening my work again at the National Film Theatre. Its been a long time!

Barbara Hammer Films