Barbara Hammer was born in Hollywood, California. After studying Psychology at the University of California in Los Angeles, she got her masters in English literature and Cinema at the university of San Francisco. Once married, she taught at a Santa Rosa highscool before coming out as a lesbian. She started directing experimental short films in the 1970s, then got interested in video art in the 1980s. She taught at the School of Art Institute and at the California College Institute. She pioneered some of the first self-proclaimed lesbian movies such as Dyketactics (1974). In 1991, she received the National Endowment of the Arts Film Production Award for her first feature film, Nitrate Kisses (1992), the first installement of a trilogy dedicated to lesbianism and the history of the gay liberation movement, including Tender Fictions (1995) and History Lessons (2000).