December 2023 Roundup Related to GME Titles, Artists, and Colleagues
/Happy New Year from Gartenberg Media Enterprises! As we ring in 2024, we’re reflecting on screenings, events, and celebrations from last month, in New York City and beyond, related to colleagues of GME, as well as films and/or filmmakers in our collection that we distribute to the North American university market. Notably, a mid-’60s science-fiction film by Jean-Luc Godard returned to the big screen, while the Film-Makers’ Cooperative hosted a two-night benefit screening of an infamous Andy Warhol film — which GME President Jon Gartenberg was instrumental in rediscovering, in the mid-1980s, while working at The Museum of Modern Art.
GME PRESIDENT JON GARTENBERG, SPEAKING ABOUT HIS INVOLVEMENT WITH THE REDISCOVERY OF ANDY WARHOL’S FILMOGRAPHY, AT THE FILM-MAKERS’ COOP’S 60th ANNIVERSARY BENEFIT SCREENING OF WARHOL’S SLEEP ON DECEMBER 2nd, 2023.
December 1st—2nd — The Bunker at 222 Bowery
On December 1st and December 2nd, 2023, at 7pm, the Film-Makers’ Cooperative hosted a benefit screening of Andy Warhol’s first major film, SLEEP (1963), at The Bunker at 222 Bowery. In the mid-1980s, while working in The Museum of Modern Art’s film department, GME President Jon Gartenberg was instrumental in the revival of Warhol’s films, like SLEEP, which were thought to be lost or destroyed after Warhol pulled them out of circulation. Gartenberg and GME Fine Arts Curator David Deitch attended the second night of the Coop’s SLEEP event; there, Gartenberg spoke about his experience rediscovering Warhol’s film oeuvre (which can be viewed here) following introductions by Coop Board President Emily Singer and Coop Executive Director, Dr. Tom Day (which can be viewed here).
STILL: EDDIE CONSTANTINE AND ANNA KARINA IN JEAN-LUC GODARD’S ALPHAVILLE (1965). SOURCE: GARTENBERG MEDIA ENTERPRISES.
December 15th — IFC Center
A brand new 4K restoration of Jean-Luc Godard’s ALPHAVILLE (1965), made from the original 35mm negative by Studiocanal at Hiventy with the support of the CNC, opened at the IFC Center on December 15th and played there through December 28th. Godard’s “effects-free, black-and-white take on sci-fi is typically iconoclastic: cerebral, disorienting, at once beautiful and alienating,” and it remains one of the most celebrated works of the French New Wave. The 4K print that showed at IFC in December originally premiered at The Museum of Modern Art in April 2023. GME distributes ALPHAVILLE to the North American university market as a Blu-Ray, DVD, and DSL file. Bonus material on this release includes an interview with the film’s star, Anna Karina, and audio commentary by film historian Tim Lucas.
FILM PROGRAMMER ADRIENNE MANCIA. SOURCE: THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART.
December 22nd — MoMA
On December 22nd, The Museum of Modern Art concluded its two month-long tribute to film programmer Adrienne Mancia. Mancia, who passed away last year at the age of 96, worked closely with GME President Jon Gartenberg in MoMA’s film department in the 1970s and ‘80s. Gartenberg collaborated on the selection of films for MoMA’s tribute to Mancia; he also wrote program notes for, and introduced, Jim McBride’s DAVID HOLZMAN’S DIARY (1967), as well as King Vidor’s THE JACK-KNIFE MAN (1920), Henry King’s THE SEVENTH DAY (1922), and Francis Ford Coppola’s debut feature DEMENTIA 13 (1963). Gartenberg’s introduction to DEMENTIA 13 can be viewed here.
THE CAST OF THE FILM ADAPTATION OF A CHORUS LINE, AS PHOTOGRAPHED BY JACK MITCHELL FOR THE DECEMBER 1985 COVER OF DANCE MAGAZINE. SOURCE © THE ESTATE OF JACK MITCHELL.
December 31st — Happy New Year!
At the end of the month, GME unearthed an archival treasure from the Jack Mitchell photo collection: this festive and celebratory shot from the December 1985 cover of Dance Magazine depicting the cast of the film adaptation of A CHORUS LINE.
Happy Holidays and Happy New Year from GME!