Nitrate Kisses

Pioneering queer filmmaker Barbara Hammer, in what was her first feature film, challenges the viewer with her thoughts on the loss of queer history as well as gay sensuality and sexuality. It begins with a short biography of writer Willa Cather, a supposed lesbian who, before her death, destroyed all personal records and correspondences, making it nearly impossible to learn more about her life. With this willful destruction of historical information, Hammer explores the life and sex of several older lesbians and juxtaposes through montage two gay men making love, tattooed S/M dykes, 1930s German film footage and adds a soundtrack that includes some amazingly queer blues songs. A demanding, yet lyrical film that is, among many things, a plea for gays and lesbians to record and rediscover their own history.