Director

Michelle Handelman

Directing

Career Snapshot

Explained

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Directed credits

Active

Regular directing credits.

TMDB popularity

0.3

Low visibility

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Directed movies: 6Directed series: 0All crew credits: 11

TMDB ID: 2326702

IMDb ID: nm0359522

Known for: Directing

Born: August 5, 1960

Age: 65

Place of birth: Chicago, Illinois, USA

Gender: Female

Adult content flag: No

Career span: 1988 - 2021

Years active: 34

Wikidata: Q6837065

Frequent jobs

Director (6)Thanks (3)Original Music Composer (1)Producer (1)

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Biography

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.

Movies