Jon Gartenberg Introduced Francis Ford Coppola's DEMENTIA 13 on November 29th for MoMA's Adrienne Mancia Tribute

LUANA ANDERS IN FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA’S DEMENTIA 13 (1963). SOURCE: LETTERBOXD.

On November 29th, 2023, at 6:30pm, GME President Jon Gartenberg introduced the Director’s Cut of Francis Ford Coppola’s feature-length debut, the Roger Corman/American International Pictures-produced 1963 horror film DEMENTIA 13, at the Museum of Modern Art. The film screened as part of the museum’s tribute to former programmer Adrienne Mancia, who passed away last year and who was a close friend, colleague, and mentor of Gartenberg’s.

Mancia and Gartenberg worked together in MoMA’s film department during the 1970s and ‘80s. It was during this time that Mancia revolutionized the job of the film curator by championing all forms of filmmaking, as well as traveling the globe in search of lesser-known cinematic treasures, which she then brought back to New York and introduced to American audiences in an age before the widespread dissemination of information via home video, the Internet, and social media.

Among the many works Mancia championed were early efforts by filmmakers that would later be regarded as the “New Hollywood.” These filmmakers, like Coppola, often got their feet wet working for independent producers, like Corman, and low-budget production companies, like AIP, where (in the words of Mancia) “you had to work quickly and economically. Low budgets can force you to find fresh resources.”

In his introduction for DEMENTIA 13, which can be viewed in the video below, Gartenberg recalls Mancia’s fondness of the early works of “New Hollywood” directors, and her inclusive and cutting-edge tastes and programming methodologies: