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LISA HAMMER
Director

 

BIO:

Lisa Hammer has been a prominent NY underground filmmaker for over a decade. She's moved on to Hollywood to direct and produce several upcoming feature films with her brother James Merendino ( SLC Punk!) and also to create ghostly music with cats and boys in her haunted mansion.  She founded the Blessed Elysium Motion Picture Company, which produces German Expressionist films and experimental horror films and fairy tales. Such works include Pus$bucket and Crawley, a collaboration with Ben Edlund and Doc Hammer.  She is the voice of Triana Orpheus on Adult Swim's hit cartoon The Venture Brothers.  She was also lead singer of the "goth" bands Mors Syphilitica and Requiem In White, releasing several recordings and videos.

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Her feature film Pus$bucket, from the Broadway Musical, enjoyed a healthy public screening run, including a few near-riots, and now can be found in the midnight movie sections of Tower and other video stores nationwide, and has been featured on an MTV special about bizarre cult films. After Pus$bucket, Lisa shot several experimental "silent movie", "German Expressionist" style fairy tale films. These films can be seen on her first shorts collection:  A Night of Marchenfilme and includes:  Blessed Elysium Follies, Beauty and the Beast, Adieux, Dames, Empire of Ache, Jorinda and Joringel, and Naughty P.S.A. Her main stories stem from a mix of Grimms fairy tales and her own dreams.

In 1999, Lisa collaborated with husband Doc Hammer, and partner Ben Edlund ( The Tick) to create the film Crawley, which won the silver medal for short films at the 1999 Chicago Underground Film Festival, and landed the three filmmakers on the cover of the Hollywood Reporter. She has also contributed to Joanie4Jackie, a film anthology project run by Miranda July, which featured Hammer's film Empire of Ache starring Dame Darcy.

Lisa Hammer collaborated further with Dame Darcy on the weekly television show Turn of the Century, a New York City public access television show done in a gothic vaudeville style that lasted from 1996 to 1999. The show featured various New York personalities, and guests such as Thurston Moore, Tiny Tim and Courtney Love. It was cited by New York Magazine as "the best public access show of 1997" and has been syndicated on stations around the U.S.

2000-2002 Lisa produced films Handtruck Women (Dir. Karen Kelly), Maldorora and a Little Girl (Dir. Maude Swift) and Rub (Dir. Doc Hammer.) She also acted in all three films and dozens of others. She directed and performed in her band Mors Syphilitica's music video "My Virgin Widows".

From 2003-2004 Lisa created the award-winning cult NYC TV show "POX" starring the uber-glamorous POX, leader of an actual cult. She is currently in post-production on the feature film documenting the cult and the TV show, with guest stars James Duval (Donnie Darko) and Clayne Crawford (Roswell, Swimfan).

From 2004- present, Lisa directed the films "Period Piece" "Ultimate Team Invasion Force" and "Why Does It Do That?" which are currently making the festival rounds. "Period Piece" was shown at an underground womens' film festival in Pakistan, at Ladyfest in the U.S., and was included in Lisa's 2005 one woman show in China. Her film Period Piece is quickly becoming a viral video sweeping the internet. The story is a remake of a 1970's sex education filmstrip for mentally handicapped children who are being shown, very graphically, how to handle their periods when they come. The film was reenacted by Hammer and her team of drunk, sick, weirdos and can be seen on her web site along with films such as: Crawley, Why Does it Do That?, Ultimate Team Invasion Force, Empire of Ache, The Dance of Death and others. Episodes of the POX TV show can also be seen on the site.

In 2006 Lisa wrote and directed a live stage-play version of Grimms fairy tales called Grimmer than Grimm which quickly became the hit of Hollywood and enjoyed standing room only performances. In this production Lisa melded the worlds of David Lynch's Fire Walk with Me and Grimm's fairy tales by populating the world of Twin Peaks with Snow White and Hansel and Gretel, along with a few evil stepmothers, Cinderella and The Frog Prince, who, when kissed, transformed into an "Adam Ant-as-Prince Charming" hunk.

Her films have toured the U.S. and the world, screening at festivals, galleries, clubs, and on TV.  Last year's screenings included: a successful one-woman show in China, Ladyfest NYC, and a secret womens' film festival in Pakistan, to mention a few. Past festival and gallery screenings have included: The New York Underground Film Festival, The Chicago Underground Film Festival, The Euro Underground Film Festival, The International Surrealist Film Festival, Palm Springs International Film and Video Festival, Festival of Darkness, Antimatter Festival, Kurzfilm Festival, Volcano Festival, Nova Arts Showcase, The Corcoran Gallery, Here Art Gallery, 911 Media Center, Apocalypse Now Showcase, The German No Budget Film Festival, Toronto "Splice This" Festival, Los Angeles Underground Festival, The Big Miss Moviola Tour, The Masters of Super-8 World Tour , and many more. She has received funding from: NY Foundation for the Arts,The Media Loft, Experimental Television Center, Drift Distribution and The Emerson Film Society. She has been a guest lecturer at New York University and Cooper Union.

Her next film going into pre-production in 2007 is the Grimms' fairy tale Sweetheart Roland.


"Lisa Hammer, the darling of New York's nouveaux
noir underground film scene is part "Good Witch of
the West", part mad slasher when it comes to her
startling and utterly warped brand of "Hansel and
Gretal on acid" movie making."
-Propaganda Magazine

empire of ache
pus$bucket
rub
the dance of death
jorinda and joringel
pox
Crawley
my virgin widows
beauty and the beast
naughty p.s.a.
turn of the century
adieux, dames
not farewell, sweet flesh
follies
maldorora and a little girl
the everlasting gaze
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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