Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibilityBarbara Forever | 2026 Sundance Film Festival
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U.S. Documentary Competition

Barbara Forever

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United States2025102 minEnglish
Barbara Forever

Jonathan Oppenheim Editing Award: US Documentary

An archive-driven exploration of the life, work, and legacy of iconic, pioneering lesbian filmmaker Barbara Hammer.

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Jonathan Oppenheim Editing Award: US Documentary

An archive-driven exploration of the life, work, and legacy of iconic, pioneering lesbian filmmaker Barbara Hammer.

Turning the lens on a celebrated filmmaker is no easy task, particularly one whose work is as groundbreaking, sensual, and life-affirming as Barbara Hammer’s. Yet, director Brydie OConnor does her justice. Weaving a kinetic tapestry of archival footage guided by Hammer’s own voice, the film offers an intimate front-row seat into the mind of a visual poet.

Barbara Hammer was deeply concerned with who makes history and who is left out, which motivated her to record her life, her body, her lovers, and the joy found in her lesbian identity. O’Connor’s portrait is an inspiring tribute and candid document of artistic process, capturing the persistence, unabashed ambition, and inevitable tensions such drive creates. Barbara Hammer’s work opened the door for so many artists, and her legacy, so deftly captured here, reminds us why. — SO

This film contains strobe effects.

This film contains mature content and may not be appropriate for all ages.

Available in person. Also available online for the public (January 29–February 1) and credentialed press and industry (January 28–February 1).

U.S. Documentary CompetitionLGBTQ+ StoriesAll FeaturesBiographyNonfictionClosed CaptionPhotosensitivityOpen CaptionU.S. Only- less

Credits

  • Director(s)

    Brydie O’Connor

  • Producer

    Elijah Stevens

    Brydie O’Connor

    Claire Edelman

  • Executive Producers

    Christine Vachon

  • Consulting Producer

    Zackary Drucker

    Jenni Olson

  • Editor

    Matt Hixon

  • Composer

    Taul Katz

  • Supervising Sound Editor

    Gisela Fullà Silvestre

  • Re-Recording Mixer

    Eli Cohn

  • Colorist

    CJ Julian

  • Archival Producer

    Brydie O’Connor

  • Contact

    Elijah Stevens

    info@spacetimefilms.co

Meet the Artist

Panelist Name

Brydie O’Connor

  • Instagram

Brydie O’Connor is a Kansas-born, New York–based filmmaker. Her work activates archives through queering storytelling structures within the nonfiction space. Her past work includes the documentary shorts The Roaming Center for Magnetic Alternatives (2025), The Fault Line (2024), and Love, Barbara (2022), which was nominated for an IDA Award.

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