(May 15, 1939 – March 16, 2019)
SCHIZY (1968)
Super 8, color, silent 24fps, 4m
This film was also blown up to 16mm.
BARBARA WARD WILL NEVER DIE (1968)
Super 8, color, silent 18fps, 3.5m
CONTRIBUTION TO LIGHT (1968)
Super 8, color, sound on tape, 18fps, 5m (at 18fps) / 3.5m (at 24fps)
The sound for this film is currently lost, and the 2010s digital file was made silent and at 24fps per Barbara’s instructions.
THE BAPTISM (1969)
Super 8, silent 18fps, 9.5m
FREEMEN (1969)
Super 8, color, sound on tape, 18fps(?), 20m
The sound for this film is currently lost.
CLEANSED I (1969)
Super 8, color, silent(?) 24fps, 12.5m
CLEANSED II (1969)
Super 8, color, sound 24fps, 7.5m
There is some uncertainty about the correct identification of the two Cleansed films (in terms of whether I and II were correctly attributed or accidentally swapped), but this could not be 100% resolved. All the footage in Cleansed II is also in Cleansed I, but II is shorter and edited differently. However, Cleansed I was definitely edited to its current longer form after Cleansed II had already been finished and printed (the extant print of II has no splices). The bottom line is that they are two different (though related) films, but, as Barbara put it in an email to me about them, she felt both were valid as they both “contained the essence of my joining with nature”.
ALDEBARAN SEES (1969)
Super 8, color, sound on tape, 16fps, 5m (at 16fps) / 3.5m (at 24fps)
The sound for this film is currently lost, and the 2018 digital file was made silent and at 24fps per Barbara’s instructions.
CLAY I LOVE YOU II (1969)
Super 8, color, silent 24fps, 5.5m
DEATH OF A MARRIAGE (1969)
Super 8, color, silent 24fps, 3m
ELEGY (1970)
Super 8, color, silent 18fps, 4m
PLAY OR YES, YES, YES (1970)
Super 8, bw & color, silent 18fps, 11.5m
WHITE CASSANDRA (1970)
Super 8, color, sound on tape, 24fps(?), 4m
The sound for this film is currently lost.
BERKELEY, 1970 (1970)
8mm, color, silent 18fps, 12m
MARIE AND ME (1972)
8mm, color, silent 18fps, 11.5m
TRAVELING (1972)
8mm, color, silent 18fps, 25.5m
YELLOW HAMMER (1972)
8mm, color, silent 18fps, 6.5m
A BRAKHAGE SONG (1972)
8mm, color, silent 18fps(?), 3m
SONG OF THE KLINKING KUP (1972)
8mm, color, silent 18fps(?), 4m
SONG 1: BACKYARD TREES (1972)
8mm, color, silent 18fps(?), 4m
I WAS/I AM (1973)
16mm, bw, sound, 7m
A GAY DAY (1973)
16mm, color, sound, 3m
“X” (1973)
16mm, color, sound, 8m
SISTERS! (1974)
16mm, color, sound, 8m
MENSES (1974)
16mm, color, sound, 4m
JANE BRAKHAGE (1974)
16mm, bw, sound, 10m
DYKETACTICS (1974)
16mm, color, sound, 4m
Barbara initially printed this film with a soundtrack consisting of excerpts from two songs by lesbian folk group Lavender Jane: “View From Gay Head (aka Any Woman Can Be A Lesbian)” and “Her Precious Love”. But when Barbara asked permission to use them in the film, songwriter/bandleader Alix Dobkin would only allow the use of the songs if Barbara could promise her that only women would ever see the film. Barbara couldn’t (and didn’t want to necessarily) guarantee this, so she instead produced a soundtrack of her own on a Moog synthesizer. The Moog track is almost exclusively how the film is known, although Barbara had made one print of the original Lavender Jane version and almost certainly showed the film initially in this form before changing the soundtrack.
In 2001, Barbara spoke to Alix Dobkin again about it, and Dobkin gave her permission, so an alternative version was created — called Dyketactics x2 — which contains the two versions back to back. Only the sound is different between the two versions, the picture is identical.
TRUTH IS THE DAUGHTER OF TIME (aka WOMEN’S RITES) (1975)
16mm, color, sound, 8m
PSYCHOSYNTHESIS (1975)
16mm, color, sound, 6m
SAN DIEGO WOMEN’S MUSIC FESTIVAL (1975)
16mm, color, silent 24fps, 6m
This film, shot at the titular festival, is more of a work of documentation, but in 2018 Barbara decided that she would like it to be present as a film in her filmography.
SUPERDYKE (1975)
16mm, color, sound, 18m
GUATEMALA WEAVE (1975)
16mm, color, silent 24fps, 13m
This film was completed, but never printed or released at the time of its making. Instead, the footage was later made available to filmmaker Deborah Stratman, who used the material to produce the film Vever (For Barbara) (2018).
SUPERDYKE MEETS MADAME X (1976) (w/ Max Almy)
video (1/2″)/16mm, bw, sound, 19.5m
This film was shot on 1/2″ open reel video, and finished on tape, but also transferred to 16mm via kinescope process for distribution on film. Both versions have existed for the lifetime of the piece and are equally valid.
MOON GODDESS (1976)
16mm, color, sound, 14m
WOMEN I LOVE (1976)
16mm, color, sound, 22.5m
STRESS SCARS AND PLEASURE WRINKLES (1976)
video, color, sound, 16.5m
EGGS (1977)
16mm, color, sound, 8m
MULTIPLE ORGASM (1977)
16mm, color, silent 24fps, 5.5m
THE GREAT GODDESS (1977)
16mm, bw, sound, 22.5m
SAPPHO (1978)
16mm, color, sound, 7m
HAIRCUT (1978)
16mm, color, silent 24fps, 4.5m
DOUBLE STRENGTH (1978)
16mm, bw & color, sound, 15m
HOME (1978)
16mm, color, sound, 13m
AVAILABLE SPACE (1978-79)
16mm, color, sound, 11m
For its performance version, this film would be projected from a rotating table onto a paper screen, and at the end of the film, Barbara would be standing behind the screen and would tear open the paper projection surface to then perform a written text in the exhibition space as the light from the moving projector illuminated her as she moved. The audience also had to move to follow the film and her performance. She continued to perform this piece periodically throughout her life. The film can also be shown as a cinematic short with no performance component.
NATURA EROTICA (1979)
16mm, color, silent 24fps, 5m
This film has apparently never been in distribution. When I asked Barbara about it ca.2016, she didn’t remember it well, but considered it minor and thought the title was silly.
TAKE BACK THE NIGHT MARCH ON BROADWAY 1978 (1978)
16mm, color, silent 24fps, 3.5m
This film, shot at the first Take Back the Night March in San Francisco (on 11/18/1978), is more of a work of documentation, but in 2018 Barbara decided that she would like it to be present as a film in her filmography.
DREAM AGE (1979)
16mm, color, sound, 12m
AREQUIPA (1980)
16mm, bw & color, silent 24fps, 8m
OUR TRIP (1980)
16mm, color, sound, 4.5m
MACHU PICCHU (1981)
16mm, color, sound, 13m
PICTURES 4 BARBARA (1981)
16mm, color, sound, 8m
POOLS (1981) (w/ Barbara Klutinis)
16mm, color, sound, 5.5m
SYNC TOUCH (1981)
16mm, color, sound, 10m
THE LESBOS FILM (1981)
16mm, color, sound, 27m
POND AND WATERFALL (1982)
16mm, color, silent 24fps, 15m
AUDIENCE [first version] (1982)
16mm, bw, sound, 12m
This is the initial version of Audience, comprising only the San Francisco sequence. Barbara would show this film at screenings of her work at this time, while also working on the other segments of the film (filming with audiences in London, Toronto, and Montreal). Once the other three sequences were shot, she incorporated this initial short film into the finished 32-minute film. One print survives of this initial, self-contained first version.
AUDIENCE (1983)
16mm, bw, sound, 32m
SEE WHAT YOU HEAR WHAT YOU SEE (1983)
16mm, bw, sound, 3m
BAMBOO XEROX (1983)
16mm, bw & color, silent 24fps, 8.5m
This film also existed in an installation version which involved a blueprint scroll being printed from an approximately 6-minute section of the film.
NEW YORK LOFT (1983)
16mm, color, sound, 8m
STONE CIRCLES (1983)
16mm, bw & color, sound, 11m
PEARL DIVER (1984)
16mm, color, sound, 5m
BENT TIME (1984)
16mm, color, sound, 22m
TOURIST (1984)
16mm, color, sound, 3m
PARISIAN BLINDS (1984)
16mm, bw & color, silent 24fps, 6m
DOLL HOUSE (1984)
16mm, color, sound, 4m
OPTIC NERVE (1985)
16mm, color, sound, 16m
WOULD YOU LIKE TO MEET YOUR NEIGHBOR? A NEW YORK SUBWAY TAPE (1985)
video, color, sound, 12.5m
SNOW JOB: THE MEDIA HYSTERIA OF AIDS (1986)
16mm/video, color, sound, 7.5m
PLACE MATTES (1987/2018)
16mm, color, sound, 8m
Barbara initially created a soundtrack for this film using field recordings, answering machines messages, and other material. Terry Setter, a composer friend, asked if he could create a soundtrack for one of her films, and so she instead released this film with a music track written and recorded by him. In 2017-2018, I found the original track she had edited before taking Terry Setter up on his offer, and she expressed that she wanted to create a new soundtrack that would incorporate both tracks – her recording collage and his music. With some basic direction from Barbara, I oversaw the new mix in 2018 with John Polito of Audio Mechanics (who I work with on the vast majority of the audio restoration on my archival projects), and she enthusiastically approved the result, wanting it to become the new standard version of the film. (All three soundtracks were preserved.)
NO NO NOOKY T.V. (1987)
16mm, color, sound, 12m
ENDANGERED (1988)
16mm, color, sound, 17.5m
BEDTIME STORIES I, II, III (1988)
video, color, sound, 33m
TWO BAD DAUGHTERS (1988) (w/ Paula Levine)
video, bw & color, 12.5m
T.V. TART (1988)
video, color, sound, 12m
This piece has been installed so it plays on a television set encased in a candy-covered outer case.
THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD ACCORDING TO A LESBIAN (1988)
video, color, sound, 16.5m
STILL POINT (1989)
16mm, color, sound, 9m
SPECTRUM (1990)
16mm, color, silent 24fps, 4m
SANCTUS (1990)
16mm, bw & color, sound, 18.5m
DR. WATSON’S X-RAYS (1991)
16mm/video, bw & color, sound, 21.5m
VITAL SIGNS (1991)
16mm, bw & color, sound, 10m
NITRATE KISSES (1992)
16mm, bw, sound, 67m
SAVE SEX (1993)
video, color, sound, 1m
SHIRLEY TEMPLE AND ME (1993)
video, color, sound, 3m
OUT IN SOUTH AFRICA (1994)
video, color, sound, 51m
BLUE FILM NO. 6: LOVE IS WHERE YOU FIND IT (1998)
8mm/video, color, silent 24fps, 3m
This piece was made from a found 8mm pornographic film and released on video only.
TENDER FICTIONS (1995)
16mm, bw & color, sound, 60m
THE FEMALE CLOSET (1998)
video, bw & color, sound, 59m
DEVOTION: A FILM ABOUT OGAWA PRODUCTIONS (2000)
video, color, sound, 81.5m
HISTORY LESSONS (2000)
16mm, bw & color, sound, 60m
DYKETACTICS X2 (1974/2001)
16mm, color, sound, 8m
See DYKETACTICS above for more information on this title.
MY BABUSHKA: SEARCHING UKRAINIAN IDENTITES (2001)
video, color, sound, 53.5m
OUR GRIEF IS NOT A CRY FOR WAR (2001)
video, color, sound, 3.5m
RESISTING PARADISE (2003)
16mm, bw & color, sound, 80m
LOVER/OTHER (2006)
digital (SD), bw & color, sound, 55m
DIVING WOMEN OF JEJU-DO (2007)
digital (SD), bw & color, sound, 24m
A HORSE IS NOT A METAPHOR (2008)
digital (SD), bw & color, sound, 29.5m
GENERATIONS (2010) (w/ Joey Carducci)
16mm, color, sound, 30.5m
MAYA DEREN’S SINK (2011)
digital (HD), bw & color, sound, 30m
LESBIAN WHALE (2015)
digital (HD), color, sound, 6.5m
WELCOME TO THIS HOUSE (2015)
digital (HD), bw & color, sound, 79m
EVIDENTIARY BODIES (2018)
digital (HD), color, sound, 9.5m
This piece exists as a three-panel installation environment, but also as a composite cinematic version. The cinematic version was initially shown with live cello soundtrack performance by the composer, Norman Scott Johnson, but has subsequently been screened with his soundtrack pre-recorded.
UNFINISHED/UNCERTAIN
HOT FLASH (1985)
video, color, sound, ca.10m
This was intended to be a feature film, but Barbara only shot approximately 10-20 minutes of material, eventually abandoning it for lack of funding. A ca.10-minute version of the material was released by her on a DVD compilation. According to an interview in The New Yorker (2/24/2019), Barbara said of this project: “I made the first twenty minutes of it by shooting Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, rewriting all the script on Saturday, editing it together. But I never got the money for the film, which was like twenty-five thousand dollars then. It wasn’t that much. People spend a whole year trying to get their money together and make another film. I don’t believe in that. For me, there are so many ways of working that something new will always come along.”
DRIVE, SHE SAID (ca.1988)
16mm, color, silent 24fps, 3.5m
This title turned up on a few rolls of film in Barbara’s collection and she indicated it was an unfinished work, though she expressed a desire to just release it as-is and add it to her filmography. However, when I got the “workprint” (as it was labeled) digitized for her to look at, it wasn’t what she expected, and seemed to share some sensibility and/or material with Endangered. As a result, this title remains uncertain.
LIGHTSTRUCK 