Nitrate Kisses
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| Nitrate Kisses | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | Barbara Hammer |
| Written by | Barbara Hammer |
| Produced by | Barbara Hammer |
| Narrated by | Barbara Hammer |
| Cinematography | Barbara Hammer |
| Edited by | Barbara Hammer |
| Distributed by | Frameline Strand Releasing |
Release dates |
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Running time | 67 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Nitrate Kisses is a 1992 experimental documentary film directed by Barbara Hammer.[1] According to Hammer, it is an exploration of the repression and marginalization of LGBT people since the First World War.[2] To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Teddy Awards, the film was selected to be shown at the 66th Berlin International Film Festival in February 2016.[3]
Nitrate Kisses combines interviews with homosexual couples, videos of four couples making love, footage of 1933 homoerotic film Lot in Sodom and images of LGBT history.[2][4][5] The couples making love are two elderly lesbians, an interracial gay male couple, two young pierced and tattooed women of color and an S/M lesbian couple.[6] The scenes of the gay male couple are overlaid with the Motion Picture Production Code.[7][8]
Part of the film focuses on the story of American novelist Willa Cather, who destroyed many personal letters and papers before her death; the film argues that Cather was covering up evidence of lesbianism.[2] Another section explores the treatment of lesbians by the Third Reich.[9]
Background
Hammer received funding from the National Endowment for the Arts to help finance Nitrate Kisses, which was her first feature film.[10][11] She decided she wanted to make a film about the most marginalized groups within the queer community. When choosing which couples to film having sex, she decided to feature a mixed-race couple and asked two friends of hers, Jack Waters and Peter Cramer.[10] She then met a young lesbian couple who were both women of color, and were pierced and tattooed, with shaved heads. She filmed them making love in a sculpture of a burnt-out house, which Hammer felt represented "a history we don't have."[10] Next, she met a lesbian couple who arrived to shoot their scene with S/M paraphernalia.[12] When looking for her fourth couple, Hammer decided that she wanted to explore ageism in the lesbian community. She went to an awards ceremony for older lesbians and chose a woman called Frances Lorraine who performed in the film with a friend.[12] In an interview for Alexandra Juhasz's book Women of Vision: Histories in Feminist Film and Video, Hammer called Nitrate Kisses her best work.[12]