GME LICENSES STILLS FROM WARREN SONBERT'S "AMPHETAMINE" FOR DR. MAURICE NAGINGTON'S BOOK "THE MORAL LESSONS OF CHEMSEX: A CRITICAL APPROACH"

Two stills from Warren Sonbert’s debut film AMPHETAMINE (1966) will appear in Dr. Maurice Nagington’s book The Moral Lessons of Chemsex: A Critical Approach, due to be published in 2025 by Routledge. The stills from Sonbert’s film that have been licensed from Gartenberg Media Enterprises (pictured above) — which depict young gay men using intravenous drugs — are well-suited for Nagington’s book, which “explores how gay and bi men’s lived experiences of chemsex intersect with its cultural representations.” As noted in Routledge’s synopsis:

[Nagington’s book] argues that while normative moral frameworks are often used to talk about chemsex, chemsex sub-cultures contain their own valuable moral frameworks that can provide lessons about some of the most pressing concerns of contemporary society… Each chapter takes its lead from themes informed by the analysis of longitudinal interviews conducted over a two-year period by the author and an archive of materials concerning chemsex such as films, soundtracks, health promotion pamphlets, newspaper articles, blogs and ethnographic field notes. Linking the accounts of interviewees to wider debates about and representations of chemsex, this innovative book develops a cohesive narrative about the moral lessons chemsex can teach us.

Dr. Maurice Nagington is a lecturer in Health Sciences at The University of Manchester, UK. His research interests include the intersections of health and cultural analysis, with interests in chemsex, ethics, HIV, sexual health, Covid-19, and palliative care.

The Estate of Warren Sonbert has previously named GME as the custodian of his legacy. Since Sonbert’s untimely passing in 1995, GME has worked on an extensive project to preserve, distribute, and curate career retrospectives of his films on an international basis, as well as publish original documents from the paper archive of his writings, which are now housed at Harvard University.

For more information about Sonbert’s AMPHETAMINE, click here. For more information about Sonbert’s body of work and GME’s commitment to furthering his legacy, click here.