Director
Michelle Handelman
August 5, 1960 · 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.
Full filmography · 8
These Unruly and Ungovernable Selves
Director
2020
Dorian, a cinematic perfume
Director
2009
BloodSisters: Leather, Dykes, and Sadomasochism
Director
1995
Twists in the Cord (or) … Other Extensions of the Telephone
cast
1994
A History of Pain
cast and Director and Writer
1992
Flesh Histories
Director
1992
Homophobia Is Known to Cause Nightmares
Director
1991
Safer Sexual Techniques in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction
Director
1988