CARRIAGE TRADE (US, 1973, Warren Sonbert)

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A 16mm, 60-minute, 6-year compilation of travels, home movies, documents, shown silent. Not strictly involved with plot or morality but rather the language of film as regards [to] time, composition, cutting, light, distance, tension of backgrounds to foregrounds, what you see and what you don’t. —Warren Sonbert

Warren Sonbert considered CARRIAGE TRADE (1973) his “magnum opus.” In this film, Sonbert interweaves footage taken from his journeys throughout Europe, Africa, Asia, and the United States, together with shots he removed from the camera originals of a number of his earlier films.

16MM FRAMES FROM WARREN SONBERT’S CARRIAGE TRADE (1973). SOURCE: GARTENBERG MEDIA ENTERPRISES.

CARRIAGE TRADE was an evolving work-in-progress, and this 61-minute version is the definitive form in which Sonbert realized it, preserved intact from the camera original.

“With CARRIAGE TRADE, Sonbert began to challenge the theories espoused by the great Soviet filmmakers of the 1920s; he particularly disliked the ‘knee-jerk’ reaction produced by Eisenstein montage. In both lectures and writings about his own style of editing, Sonbert described CARRIAGE TRADE as ‘a jig-saw puzzle of postcards to produce varied displaced effects.’ This approach, according to Sonbert, ultimately affords the viewer multi-faceted readings of the connections between shots through the spectator's assimilation of ‘the changing relations of the movement of objects, the gestures of figures, familiar worldwide icons, rituals and reactions, rhythm, spacing and density of images.’” —Jon Gartenberg, program note for CARRIAGE TRADE, Whitney Museum of American Art, New American Filmmakers Series, October 11—17, 1973

STILL: WARREN SONBERT’S CARRIAGE TRADE (1973). SOURCE: GARTENBERG MEDIA ENTERPRISES.

CARRIAGE TRADE
(US, 1973)

Director: Warren Sonbert

  • 61 minutes
  • 16mm
  • Color
  • Silent
Distribution Format/s: DSL/Downloadable 1080p .mp4 file on server

Published By: GME

Institutional Price: $1,000

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