Menses. 1974. USA. Barbara Hammer. 4 min. 16mm
See for Yourself. 1995. USA. Directed by Jerry Tartaglia. 17 min. 16mm
Community Action Center. 2010. USA. Directed by A.K. Burns and A.L. Steiner. 69 min. Digital
Program run time: 90 min
Described as a “sociosexual…womyn-centric composition,” Community Action Center explores “infinitely complex gender and performance roles that are both real and fantastical.” Created in collaboration with an intergenerational community of artists and performers as “a hedonistic and distinctly political adventure,” the video offers “a reason and a space to reflect on the cultural realness of homo-grown lesbian sexuality.” Hammer’s Menses is “a wry comedy on the disagreeable aspects of menstruation, in which women act out their own dramas on a California hillside, in a supermarket, in a red-filtered ritual of mutual bonding. Menses combines both the imagery and the politics of menstruation in a fine blend of comedy and drama. Tartaglia’s See for Yourself is a heartfelt document and memorial to a friend’s life lost to HIV.
Menses was preserved by Electronic Arts Intermix and the Academy Film Archive through the National Film Preservation Foundation's Avant-Garde Masters Grant program and The Film Foundation. Funding provided by the George Lucas Family Foundation.