Watch Nitrate Kisses

Nitrate Kisses is a non-linear documentary film from 1992, directed and narrated by Barbara Hammer. The film is a unique blend of archival footage, interviews, and dramatizations, exploring four themes that interconnect through the 20th century: the lesbian experience, the rise and fall of the nitrate film industry, the AIDS crisis, and the history of the Wyandot people, native to the Great Lakes Region.

The film starts with a beautiful shot of a woman's face, blurred by the sunlight pouring through a window. The following scene is a dramatic reenactment of a lesbian couple from the 1930s, their dialogue taken from love letters found in an archive in the former East Germany. The letters describe the couple's love for each other, their loneliness, and the fear of being caught by the authorities who criminalized homosexuality at the time. The reenactment is followed by archival footage of two women dancing together, taken from a nitrate print from the 1930s.

The next sequence focuses on the nitrate film industry and its rise as a powerful medium of mass entertainment, followed by its decline due to the highly flammable nature of the film stock. Hammer shows footage of nitrate prints burning, juxtaposed with interviews from people who worked in the industry, explaining the process of nitrate film production and its dangers.

The third theme, the AIDS crisis, is introduced through a series of interviews with two men, one of whom is living with HIV. This sequence highlights the devastating effects of the illness, both physical and emotional, and the stigma attached to it in the early years of the epidemic.

The fourth theme is the history of the Wyandot people, indigenous to the Great Lakes Region. Hammer interviews two Wyandot women, who share their stories of survival, resistance and resilience in the face of colonization and displacement. The women describe their cultural practices, their spirituality and their connection to the land, in ways that challenge dominant narratives of European conquest and assimilation.

Throughout the film, Hammer employs a range of visual and auditory techniques, including jump cuts, superimpositions, freeze frames, voice-overs and a collage of music genres, to create a multi-layered and immersive experience. The film's non-linear structure invites the viewer to make their own connections between the different themes and to reflect on the ways in which they intersect.

The film's title, Nitrate Kisses, refers to a phenomenon observed in old nitrate prints, where the film's image and sound track would become warped over time, resulting in a kind of "kiss" between the two. The metaphor is apt, as the film explores the ways in which history, memory, desire and identity intersect and collide, in ways that are both beautiful and distorted.

In conclusion, Nitrate Kisses is a groundbreaking documentary film that challenges conventional modes of storytelling and representation. Its exploration of diverse themes and its use of experimental techniques create a rich and complex portrait of the 20th century, that is both visceral and intellectual. Jerre, Maria, and Ruth, the film's protagonists, are not traditional characters, but rather embodiment of larger cultural and historical context, with their stories and experiences being an intersection of personal and societal changes. This film is a captivating and experimental journey, offering insights into the multifaceted nature of human existence.