September 2023 Roundup of Screenings Related to GME's DSL, DVD, & Blu-ray Offerings
/Happy Autumn from Gartenberg Media Enterprises! As we enter October, we’re looking back at a myriad of screenings from last month, in New York City and beyond, featuring films and/or filmmakers in our collection that we distribute to the North American university market. GME-associated artists were well-represented in September — from pioneering filmmakers like Ida Lupino, Jean-Luc Godard, José Val Del Omar, Maya Deren, and Man Ray, to contemporary artists like Karel Doing, Rose Lowder, and Lav Diaz. The work of Warren Sonbert, which is exclusively represented by GME, was also screened in various venues in September.
Still: LAV DIAZ’S BATANG WEST SIDE (2001).
September 2nd — Spectacle Microcinema
On Saturday, September 2nd, 2023, Spectacle Microcinema (124 S. 3rd Street) screened Lav Diaz’s 2001 feature film BATANG WEST SIDE. This was the final program in Spectacle’s months-long retrospective of Diaz’s work, which began on March 25th, 2023. This fall, GME will distribute BATANG WEST SIDE, along with Diaz’s 2018 short THE BOY WHO CHOSE THE EARTH, in a forthcoming DVD/DSL bundle made in collaboration with Edition-Filmmuseum.
FILMMAKER MAYA DEREN.
September 4th — The Brooklyn Rail
On Labor Day, The Brooklyn Rail and the Film-Makers’ Cooperative made five essential films by the Mother of American Avant-Garde Cinema, the only and only Maya Deren, available to view online, for free, for 24 hours. GME is proud to distribute these five Deren titles — 1943’s MESHES OF THE AFTERNOON, 1944’s AT LAND, 1945’s A STUDY IN CHOREOGRAPHY FOR THE CAMERA, 1946’s RITUAL IN TRANSFIGURED TIME, and 1948’s MEDITATION ON VIOLENCE — to universities in the United States and Canada as both DVDs and DVD/DSL bundles.
FILMMAKER KEN JACOBS, PICTURED IN FRED RIEDEL’S DOCUMENTARY KEN JACOBS: FROM ORCHARD STREET TO THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART (2023).
September 6th — Venice Film Festival
From September 6—7th, 2023, the feature-length documentary KEN JACOBS: FROM ORCHARD STREET TO THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART screened at the Venice International Film Festival in the Venice Classics section. Fred Riedel, a former student and longtime friend of Jacobs, produced, directed, shot, and edited the film. GME is a longtime friend and collaborator of Jacobs and produced his 2012 film CYCLOPEAN #3D: LIFE WITH A BEAUTIFUL WOMAN through the Experimental Filmmakers Production Fund.
FILMMAKER JEAN-LUC GODARD. SOURCE: WIKIMEDIA COMMONS.
September 8th — TIFF
On September 8th, 2023, a compendium of short films by Rose Lowder titled BOUQUET 31—40 played at the Toronto International Film Festival. GME distributes, to the North American university market, five films by Lowder (spanning 1978 to 1995) in a collection titled BOUQUET D’IMAGES. Jean-Luc Godard’s final film TRAILER OF A FILM THAT WILL NEVER EXIST: PHONY WARS also made its North American premiere at the festival on September 10th. GME distributes to the North American university market, on Blu-Ray, DVD, and DSL, Godard’s ALPHAVILLE.
FILMMAKER KAREL DOING. SOURCE: ALCHEMY FILM & ARTS.
September 8th — Crossroads Film Festival
From September 8th to September 10th, 2023, films by Karel Doing and Sigfried Fruhauf played at the Crossroads Film Festival. The festival’s programmer, Steve Polta, is a longtime colleague of GME President Jon Gartenberg. In the festival’s fifth program, titled upheld in rolling air by finer gravitations, Doing’s experimental short film OXYGEN made its world premiere. GME distributes two of the artist’s early works, 1993’s LICHTAJAREN and 1999’s ENERGY ENERGY, in the collection STUDIO EEN: EXPERIMENTAL FILMS FROM THE LOWLANDS. Meanwhile, in Crossroads’ ninth program, titled sympathetic bodies, Fruhauf premiered his latest short film CAVE PAINTING. GME distributes Fruhauf’s 10-minute short film from 2008, NIGHT SWEAT, in the collection VISIONARY: CONTEMPORARY SHORT DOCUMENTARIES AND EXPERIMENTAL FILMS FROM AUSTRIA, which is available as both a DVD and DVD/DSL bundle.
FILMMAKER JOSE VAL DEL OMAR.
September 9th — MoMI
Since March of this year, the Museum of the Moving Image has shown the work of prolific multimedia artist José Val del Omar in an ongoing exhibition titled Cinema of Sensations: The Never-Ending Screen of Val del Omar. As part of this exhibition, MoMI presented on Saturday, September 9th, 2023, “a day of films and conversations that explore the work and legacy of [the] Spanish filmmaker, inventor, and artist,” titled Elements of Cinema. Gartenberg Media Enterprises is proud to distribute, to the North American university market, 14 stunning Val del Omar films in a 5-disc DVD and DVD/DSL bundle boxset titled VAL DEL OMAR: ELEMENTAL DE ESPAÑA.
STILL: AMPHETAMINE (1966) BY WARREN SONBERT.
September 9th — WIELS
Gartenberg Media Enterprises granted permission for James Richards to include Warren Sonbert’s 1966 masterpiece AMPHETAMINE in his program with Billy Bultheel, Workers in Song, at WIELS in Brussels. The film played with a new score by Richards and Bultheel on Saturday, September 9th, and Sunday, September 10th, 2023. AMPHETAMINE is currently available through GME as a DSL download for worldwide institutional rental or purchase.
FILMMAKER IDA LUPINO, PICTURED WITH ACTRESS SALLY FORREST — FUTURE STAR OF LUPINO’S HARD, FAST, AND BEAUTIFUL (1951) — ON THE SET OF NOT WANTED IN 1949. SOURCE: GARTENBERG MEDIA ENTERPRISES.
September 17th — MoMI
On September 17th, 2023, trailblazing director Ida Lupino’s 1951 psychodrama HARD, FAST, AND BEAUTIFUL screened at the Museum of the Moving Image as part of their ongoing series Queens on Screen. Lupino is a key filmmaker in GME’s collection. We distribute to the North American university market, on Blu-Ray, DVD, and DSL, the director’s 1949 polio drama NEVER FEAR, as well as her serial killer noir from 1953, THE HITCH-HIKER.
STILL: FROM WARREN SONBERT’S FRIENDLY WITNESS (1989). SOURCE: TATE MODERN.
September 22nd — NYU
On Friday, September 22nd, 2023, Warren Sonbert’s 1989 “musical montage” film FRIENDLY WITNESS screened at New York University, at 721 Broadway Room 674, as part of Moving Image Archiving and Preservation (MIAP) student Andrew Reichel’s program Three by Three by Three Hundred: Rare 16mm Films. GME represents the work and legacy of Sonbert, and currently distributes five of his films as DSL downloads: AMPHETAMINE (1966), THE BAD AND THE BEAUTIFUL (1967), HALL OF MIRRORS (1966), THE TENTH LEGION (1967), and WHERE DID OUR LOVE GO? (1966). FRIENDLY WITNESS, along with the rest of Sonbert’s montage films, will become available for institutional acquisition and rental through GME in the near future.
OFFICIAL POSTER FOR “AN EVENING WITH BILL BRAND.” SOURCE: MAYSLES DOCUMENTARY CENTER.
September 23rd — Maysles Documentary Center
On Saturday, September 22nd, 2023, experimental film and video artist, educator, activist, and film preservationist Bill Brand screened four of his films and gave a presentation connecting his moving image works to his paintings and drawings at the Maysles Documentary Center. Brand is a longtime collaborator with Gartenberg Media Enterprises. In the late 1990s, GME President Jon Gartenberg worked as the program director for the Film Preservation Program of the Estate Project for Artists with AIDS. As part of that role, Gartenberg enlisted BB Optics — Brand’s preservation laboratory — to work on the Project’s preservation of work by multimedia artists David Wojnarowicz, Curt McDowell, and Jack Waters. Also part of GME’s collection of experimental and avant-garde artists’ work is a unique, one-of-a-kind analog clock by Brand, which features a cubist collage of Gartenberg and David Deitch’s kitchen.
L-R: LIGHT INDUSTRY CO-FOUNDER ED HALTER, ACTRESS AND ARTIST DONNA KERNESS, AND GME PRESIDENT JON GARTENBERG AT “AN EVENING WITH DONNA KERNESS,” SEPTEMBER 23rd, 2023.
September 23rd — Light Industry
On Saturday, September 23rd, 2023, Light Industry showed three films starring underground film star Donna Kerness, including Mike Kuchar’s SINS OF THE FLESHAPOIDS. GME distributes this title to the North American University market on DVD. GME also distributes several films by Marie Losier, who was directly inspired by the work of Mike Kuchar and his brother, George.
THE OFFICIAL FLYER FOR “STREET LIFE: THE PERSONAL CINEMA OF MARK STREET.” SOURCE: MILLENNIUM FILM WORKSHOP.
September 23rd — Millennium Film Workshop
On Saturday, September 23rd, 2023, six recent observational films by Mark Street played at Millennium Film Workshop in the program Street Life: The Personal Cinema of Mark Street. Street is a longtime friend of GME’s who Jon Gartenberg programmed numerous films by — including FULTON FISH MARKET, A YEAR, and ROCKAWAY — while working at the Tribeca Film Festival from 2003 to 2014. Gartenberg later joined Street on a day of filming in New York City, as part of an “experiential” prize won at an auction at the Film-Makers’ Cooperative. The resulting 16mm work — which Street entitled CITY WALK — is a unique, one-of-a-kind item in GME’s archive of experimental filmmakers’ work. Gartenberg once remarked of Street’s work: “The globe is Mark Street’s cinematic canvas, onto which he impresses shimmering reflections and lyric montage sequences.”
STILL: MAN RAY’S RETURN TO REASON (1923). SOURCE: GARTENBERG MEDIA ENTERPRISES.
September 30th — NYFF
At this year’s New York Film Festival, films by Man Ray and Abel Gance screened in the Revivals section, which highlighted “important works from renowned filmmakers that have been digitally remastered, restored, and preserved with the assistance of generous partners.” GME distributes on DVD, with Re:Voir Video, to the North American university market, Ray’s RETURN TO REASON and EMAK-BAKIA in the eight-film collection CINÉMA DADA. GME is also proud to distribute Gance’s LA ROUE on DVD, to the North American university market, in conjunction with Flicker Alley. GME additionally distributes Gance’s J’ACCUSE (1919) on DVD with the same label.