Michelle Handelman
Directing
- Born
- August 5, 1960 (age 66) · Chicago, Illinois, USA
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.
Known for
Terminal USA
September 17, 1993
BloodSisters: Leather, Dykes, and Sadomasochism
June 10, 1995
Homophobia Is Known to Cause Nightmares
July 8, 1991
A History of Pain
January 1, 1992
Dorian, a cinematic perfume
August 26, 2009
Safer Sexual Techniques in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction
April 25, 1988
Flesh Histories
January 1, 1992
These Unruly and Ungovernable Selves
May 28, 2020
Behind the camera14
- 2021Claiming the Liminal Space Director
- 2020Candyland Director
- 2020Solitude is an Artifact of the Struggle Against Oppression Director
- 2020These Unruly and Ungovernable Selves Director
- 2014Irma Vep, The Last Breath Director
- 2009Dorian, a cinematic perfume Director
- 2002I Hate You Director
- 2000La Suture Director of Photography, Director
- 1995BloodSisters: Leather, Dykes, and Sadomasochism Producer, Editor, Director
- 1993