February 2025 Roundup Related to GME Titles, Artists, and Colleagues
/Today we recap screenings, events, and celebrations from February, in New York City and beyond, related to GME titles, artists, and colleagues. Notably, Jack Mitchell’s photographic oeuvre was highlighted on the occasion of Black History Month, in recognition of exhibitions and performances at the Whitney and Lincoln Center, and upon the passing of legendary singer-songwriter Roberta Flack. Furthermore, Francis Ford Coppola’s feature directorial debut streamed in the Adrienne Mancia Streaming Room beginning on February 12th.
February 2nd — San Francisco Silent Film Festival
On Sunday, February 2nd, the San Francisco Silent Film Festival screened Frank Urson and Cecil B. DeMille’s CHICAGO (1927) and Frank Lloyd and Josef von Sternberg’s CHILDREN OF DIVORCE (1927) at the San Francisco Jazz Center, as part of their celebration A Day of Silents. GME distributes CHICAGO on DVD and CHILDREN OF DIVORCE as a Blu-Ray/DVD combo pack to North American universities, in conjunction with Flicker Alley.
February 6th — GME
In recognition of the centennial of photographer Jack Mitchell, GME now offers a series of readymade exhibitions throughout 2025 that showcase his iconic photographs. In honor of Black History Month, we presented Harlem, Hollywood, Broadway: African American Legends, which features 36 silver gelatin and color photographs of noteworthy African-American artists and performers that Mitchell took over the span of his five-decade career. This show first opened at the Huntsville Museum of Art in Alabama in January 2020 and is currently available to galleries, museums, and other cultural institutions both in the U.S. and abroad.
February 9th — Whitney Museum of American Art
On February 9th, the exhibition EDGES OF AILEY closed at the Whitney after four months. EDGES OF AILEY is the first large-scale museum exhibition to celebrate the life, dances, influences, and enduring legacy of artist and choreographer Alvin Ailey. Photographer Jack Mitchell — whose photographs GME represents for sale and exhibition — was a close friend of Ailey’s from the inception of his dance company in 1960. Mitchell’s Ailey photographs, spanning decades, capture both the man and his storied company, including images of Judith Jamison, whom Ailey chose to succeed himself as Artistic Director in 1989.
February 11th — Lincoln Center
The 2025 season of Lincoln Center’s performance series American Songbook “tak[es] a cue from SISTER OUTSIDER, Audre Lorde’s influential essay collection on feminist theory… elevat[ing] our Singer Outsiders, inspiring musicians who have shaped modern performance. Curated in collaboration with iconic composers and singers Tamar-kali and Kathleen Hanna, this year’s bold and eclectic line-up features powerhouse voices from across the punk, pop, jazz, classical, R&B, and theater worlds.” In recognition of this series and of Lorde’s influence, GME presents this indelible portrait of Lorde, taken by Jack Mitchell in 1983.
February 12th — GME
This month in the Adrienne Mancia Streaming Room, GME presented Francis Ford Coppola’s debut feature film, the macabre thriller DEMENTIA 13 (1963), which screened in MoMA’s November—December 2023 tribute to Mancia. As a programmer at The Museum of Modern Art, Mancia was an advocate of progressive “New Hollywood” filmmakers such as Coppola who, in the late 1960s and early ‘70s, subverted the moral and aesthetic traditions (and limitations) of the studio system by producing thematically and stylistically challenging work influenced by European cinema, the American avant-garde, and the countercultural ethos of the era at large.
February 28th — GME
On February 28th, GME honored the artistry and legacy of singer-songwriter Roberta Flack with this photograph of Flack taken by Jack Mitchell in 1971 — a year before her recording of Ewan MacColl's "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" became a number-one hit and made her an international star. Flack passed away on February 24, 2025, at the age of 88. Mitchell's portrait of Flack is featured in the exhibition Harlem, Hollywood, Broadway: African American Legends, which first opened at the Huntsville Museum of Art in Alabama in January 2020.