“I was born when I became a lesbian.” Renowned for creating some of the first films by an openly lesbian filmmaker, Barbara Hammer shaped feminist and queer experimental cinema through formally daring, sensuous and unapologetically political work. Challenging convention and expanding the possibilities of the medium, she centred the lesbian experience with boldness and joy. This stunning portrait weaves documentation from her final years with excerpts from her groundbreaking films, revealing an artist determined to remain the author of her own legacy. It also offers intimate access to her personal life through her enduring partnership with human rights advocate Florrie R. Burke, her battle with cancer, and her journey to see her archive acquired by Yale University’s Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, before her death in 2019. Everything she did was grounded in the same courage and conviction that fuelled her art. A moving tribute to Hammer’s singular creativity and lasting influence, Barbara Forever celebrates a visionary who paved the way for generations of artists—and who, at the end, gets the last word. Simone Estrin