February 2024 Roundup Related to GME Titles, Artists, and Colleagues
/Happy March from Gartenberg Media Enterprises! Today, we’re reflecting on screenings, events, and celebrations from February, in New York City and beyond, related to GME colleagues, as well as titles and/or artists in our collection that we distribute to the North American university market. Notably, films by French cinema icons Jackie Raynal and Philippe Garrel screened at Anthology Film Archives, while CARRIAGE TRADE, the magnum opus of Warren Sonbert — whose work and legacy GME is proud to represent — returned to the Centre Pompidou 48 years after it was first shown there.
STILL: PHILIPPE GARREL’S LA CICATRICE INTERIEURE (1972). SOURCE: IMDb.
February 3rd — Harvard Film Archive
Jackie Raynal’s DEUX FOIS (1969) and Philippe Garrel’s LA CICATRICE INTERIEURE (1972) played at the Harvard Film Archive on February 3rd in conjunction with the publication of The Afterimage Reader: a compendium of essays, assembled by The Visible Press, from the magazine Afterimage. GME distributes, to the North American university market, DEUX FOIS as both a DVD and a DSL file, and LA CICATRICE INTERIEURE as both a DVD/Blu-Ray combo pack and a DSL file.
PHOTO: “A GLORIOUS BEWILDERMENT: MARIE MENKEN’S VISUAL VARIATIONS ON NOGUCHI” AT THE NOGUCHI MUSEUM, FEBRUARY 2024. SOURCE: JON GARTENBERG AND DAVID DEITCH.
February 4th — Noguchi Museum
From September 27th, 2023, to February 4th, 2024, the Noguchi Museum — which is dedicated to the work of world-famous sculptor Isamu Noguchi — mounted A Glorious Bewilderment: Marie Menken’s ‘Visual Variations on Noguchi’, curated by Kate Wiener. This exhibit paired Marie Menken’s first film, 1945’s VISUAL VARIATIONS ON NOGUCHI (in which Menken captures Noguchi’s sculptures “in motion” via frenetic manipulation of a 16mm Bolex camera) with a selection of related sculptures by Noguchi. GME President Jon Gartenberg and GME Fine Arts Curator David Deitch attended the exhibit earlier this month, which showed Menken’s film in its original 16mm format. GME distributes Martina Kudláček’s 2006 documentary NOTES ON MARIE MENKEN to the North American university market as a DVD and DVD/DSL bundle. Included on GME’s release is VISUAL VARIATIONS ON NOGUCHI, in addition to some of Menken’s later films: 1957’s vernal wonder GLIMPSE OF THE GARDEN, 1961’s colorful and hypnotic ARABESQUE FOR KENNETH ANGER, and 1966’s Yuletide dazzler LIGHTS.
COVER ART FOR WILLIAM SUSMAN’S ALBUM MUSIC FOR MOVING PICTURES. SOURCE: WILLIAM SUSMAN/BANDCAMP.
February 5th — Bandcamp
William Susman, who composed the music for Steve Bilich’s 2005 experimental short NATIVE NEW YORKER, included his score for the film on his new album MUSIC FOR MOVING PICTURES, which was released on February 7th. Susman hosted a listening party for the album on Bandcamp on the 5th. NATIVE NEW YORKER is exclusively available, worldwide, from GME, for acquisition and exhibition by cultural organizations, as well as for clip licensing by commercial productions.
STILL: MARIA LASSNIG’S SELF-PORTRAIT (1971). SOURCE: GARTENBERG MEDIA ENTERPRISES.
February 19th — Berlinale
Beginning on February 19th, ten short works by experimental filmmaker and animator Maria Lassnig played at the Berlin International Film Festival. GME is proud to distribute these Lassnig titles in the collection MARIA LASSNIG: ANIMATION FILMS, which is available to the North American university market as both a DVD and a DVD/DSL bundle. GME also distributes a 72 minute-long compendium of unfinished works and works-in-progress by Lassnig, titled MARIA LASSNIG: FILM WORKS.
STILL: WARREN SONBERT’S CARRIAGE TRADE (1973). SOURCE: GARTENBERG MEDIA ENTERPRISES.
February 21st — Centre Pompidou
On February 21st, Warren Sonbert’s film CARRIAGE TRADE — which the artist himself described as his “magnum opus” — screened at the Centre Pompidou in Paris. Sonbert’s film played in their exhibition A History of Cinema, which “draws an alternative narrative to the dominant cinematic canons and constitutes the founding moment of the Museum’s film collection.” CARRIAGE TRADE is currently distributed on 16mm by the Film-Makers’ Cooperative in New York, Canyon Cinema in San Francisco, and Light Cone in Paris. GME is the custodian of Sonbert’s legacy and proud to represent his significant body of work.
STILL: MARCEL HANOUN’S UNE SIMPLE HISTOIRE. SOURCE: GARTENBERG MEDIA ENTERPRISES.
February 23rd — Anthology Film Archives
As part of their Essential Cinema series, a collection of films screened on a repertory basis, Anthology Film Archives showed Marcel Hanoun’s UNE SIMPLE HISTOIRE (1959) on February 23rd. GME distributes this title to the North American university market as both a DVD and a DSL file. Additionally, we distribute Hanoun’s OCTOBRE À MADRID (1964) and THE SEASONS (LES SAISONS) (1968-72) on DVD and DSL — the latter being a “quadriptych” made up of Hanoun’s films L’ÉTÉ (1968), L’HIVER (1969), LE PRINTEMPS (1970), and L’AUTOMNE (1972).