Michelle Handelman

Known for: Directing
Born: August 5, 1960, Chicago, Illinois, USA
Movies: 16

Michelle Handelman (born August 5, 1960) is an American contemporary artist, filmmaker, and writer who works with live performance, multiscreen installation, photography and sound. Coming up through the years of the AIDS crisis and Culture Wars, Handelman has built a body of work that explores the dark and uncomfortable spaces of queer desire. She confronts the things that provoke collective fear and denial – sexuality, death, chaos. She directed the ground-breaking feature documentary on the 1990s San Francisco lesbian S/M scene BloodSisters: Leather, Dykes & Sadomasochism(1995), described by IndieWire as “a queer classic ahead of its time, a vital archive of queer history.” Her early work included 16mm black and white experimental films combined with performance. She is also known for her video installations Hustlers & Empires (2018), Irma Vep, The Last Breath (2013-2015), and Dorian, A Cinematic Perfume (2009-2011). In 2011, she was awarded a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship for her film and video work.

Best-Known Movies

5.2

BloodSisters: Leather, Dykes, and Sadomasochism

1995

5.5

Homophobia Is Known to Cause Nightmares

1991

Twists in the Cord (or) … Other Extensions of the Telephone

1994

A History of Pain

1992

Dorian, a cinematic perfume

2009

Safer Sexual Techniques in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction

1988

Flesh Histories

1992

These Unruly and Ungovernable Selves

2020

Filmography

2000	La Suture
1994	Twists in the Cord (or) … Other Extensions of the Telephone
1992	A History of Pain

Directing, Writing & Producing

2021	Claiming the Liminal Space	Director
2020	Candyland	Director
2020	Solitude is an Artifact of the Struggle Against Oppression	Director
2020	These Unruly and Ungovernable Selves	Director
2014	Irma Vep, The Last Breath	Director
2009	Dorian, a cinematic perfume	Director
2002	I Hate You	Director
2000	La Suture	Director
1995	BloodSisters: Leather, Dykes, and Sadomasochism	Producer, Director
1992	A History of Pain	Director, Writer, Producer
1992	Flesh Histories	Director
1991	Homophobia Is Known to Cause Nightmares	Director
1988	Safer Sexual Techniques in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction	Director

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