I choose film and video as a medium to make the invisible, visible. Anyone can be left out of history. I am compelled to reveal and celebrate marginalized peoples whose stories have not been told. A multi-level cinema that engages them viscerally and intellectually activates my audiences. I want people to leave the theater with fresh perceptions and emboldened to take active and political stances for scoial change in a global environment. Hammer is an internationally recognized filmmaker and teacher whose work explores issues of culture, gender and sexual orientation. Her films have been exhibited throughout the world, winning major awards from the Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival in Japan, the Berlin Film Festival, Frameline, the Whitney Museum Biennials, and the Ann Arbor Festival. In 1998 she had a major retrospective at Immaganaria, the 6th Women's Film Festival in Bologna. Her trilogy of experimental documentaries on lesbian and gay histories is considered ciclassic cinema: Nitrate Kisses (1992), Tender Fictions (1995) and History Lessons (2000). History Lessons premiered at the Frameline Film Festival, and has been screened at the Independent Feature Market and the Sundance Film Festival. A rretrospective of Hammer's work was held at The Arsenal in Berlin, and also at Image in Atlanta Georgia. She has taught at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts (Boston); the New School for Social Research and the San Francisco Art Institute. Her works are distributed by Frameline.