Jon Gartenberg Presents a Suite of Politically-Trenchant New York City Symphony Films at Allied Productions Project Space on August 9th

On Friday, August 9th, 2024, at 8pm, curator Jon Gartenberg will present five politically-trenchant New York city symphony films at Allied Productions Project Space (368 East 8th Street, Storefront West, near Avenue C, on the ground floor). To RSVP to this event, click here.

Spanning the mid-1980s to the mid-2000s, the five films in this program posit New York City as a backdrop, and conduit, for political discourse pertaining to the AIDS crisis, economic gentrification, and 9/11. In Jack Waters' BERLIN/NY (1984), fenced-in empty lots of the Lower East Side are contrasted with views of East Berlin through Checkpoint Charlie, with Waters commenting on the potential for capitalist exploitation of these two sites. In Jim Hubbard's ELEGY IN THE STREETS (1989), silent footage of marches, vigils, police confrontations, and the AIDS quilt coalesce to form a direct response to the negligence of Reagan-era political figures towards the AIDS crisis. Abigail Child's B/SIDE (US, 1996) captures the plights of the homeless in Tompkins Square Park, while Jem Cohen's NYC WEIGHTS AND MEASURES (2006) and Steve Bilich's NATIVE NEW YORKER (2006) reexamine the tragedy of 9/11 through the lenses of political repression and Indigenous identity. Together, these films critically engage with a myriad of seemingly disparate yet undeniably interconnected sociopolitical issues still impacting the metropolis we call home.

This program is the latest example of Gartenberg’s commitment to excavating and exhibiting city symphony films, a project he began cultivating in the early 1970s as a curator for MoMA’s Department of Film. To learn more about Gartenberg’s various city symphony programs and publications, click here. To explore the city symphony titles GME distributes to North American universities on DSL and DVD, click here.

To learn more about this event and to reserve tickets, click here. Additionally, please stay tuned for forthcoming social media announcements from GME about each of the films in this program.

THE TRAILER FOR STEVE BILICH'S NATIVE NEW YORKER (2006). SOURCE: GARTENBERG MEDIA ENTERPRISES.