Optic Nerve

In this experimental documentary, avant-garde pioneer Barbara Hammer explores how film can trace the fragile boundary between familiarity and disconnection. Using a 16 mm camera, she first documents her grandmother’s everyday life—in the nursing home, in the garden, and while grocery shopping—before processing the footage with an optical printer. Hammer transforms the original material into a rhythmic, poetic composition filled with negative images, double exposures, and flickering effects, accompanied by the sound of the mechanical ticking of the projector and a melancholic piano score.

Hammer’s visual manipulation draws a parallel between her grandmother's physical deterioration and the material vulnerability of the film medium itself. In increasingly distorted images, Optic Nerve captures the process of a beloved family member slowly slipping away. This multilayered, meditative work engages with the way memories fade and become distorted—but through film, come back to life.

This screening is part of Focus: Barbara Hammer, a program presenting films by American filmmaker and visual artist Barbara Hammer. See the full program here.