Naughty Films at the Library: Avant-Garde Works in the NYPL's Reserve Film and Video Collection

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Naughty Films at the Library: Avant-Garde Works in the NYPL's Reserve Film and Video Collection

Thursday, September 19th, at 5:30pm at the Bruno Walter Auditorium in the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center. Curator Jon Gartenberg, in collaboration with NYPL Film Collection Specialist Elena Rossi-Snook, will present a program of avant-garde films from the Library's Reserve Film and Video Collection that deals with sex and censorship. After the screening, Gartenberg and Rossi-Snook will discuss the history and interpretation of these rarely-screened works. This event is free to attend and can be RSVPed here.

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Two Warren Sonbert Films Screen in "The Motown Sound and the Queer Underground," curated by GME associate Matt McKinzie

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Two Warren Sonbert Films Screen in "The Motown Sound and the Queer Underground," curated by GME associate Matt McKinzie

On Friday, August 30th, at 7:30pm, Warren Sonbert’s first two films AMPHETAMINE (1966) and WHERE DID OUR LOVE GO? (1966) will screen at Spectacle Theater (124 S. 3rd St.) in the program The Motown Sound and the Queer Underground, curated by GME associate Matt McKinzie as part of the series Sonic Visions: Experiments in Cinema and Music, presented by the Film-Makers’ Cooperative. Sonbert’s Estate has previously named GME as the custodian of his legacy, and since the artist’s untimely passing, GME has worked on an extensive project to preserve, distribute, and curate career retrospectives of his films on an international basis, as well as publish original documents from the paper archive of his writings.

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Watch Jon Gartenberg Introduce His Program of Politically-Trenchant New York City Symphony Films at Allied Productions Project Space

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Watch Jon Gartenberg Introduce His Program of Politically-Trenchant New York City Symphony Films at Allied Productions Project Space

On August 9th, 2024, at 7pm, GME President Jon Gartenberg presented a program of politically-trenchant New York city symphony films, spanning 1984 to 2006, at Allied Productions Project Space (368 East 8th Street). The program featured Steve Bilich’s NATIVE NEW YORKER (2005) and Jem Cohen’s NYC WEIGHTS AND MEASURES (2006) digitally, and Jack Waters’ BERLIN/NY (1984), Abigail Child’s B/SIDE (1996), and Jim Hubbard’s ELEGY IN THE STREETS (1989) on 16mm. To view Gartenberg’s introduction to the program — and to hear artist and co-founder of Allied Productions, Jack Waters, introduce Gartenberg — watch the video here.

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July 2024 Roundup Related to GME Titles, Artists, and Colleagues

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July 2024 Roundup Related to GME Titles, Artists, and Colleagues

It may be the dog days of summer, but that hasn’t stopped GME from keeping busy. Today, we reflect on screenings, events, and celebrations from July related to our multifaceted projects. Notably, an archival gem relevant to MoMA’s month-long Powell and Pressburger retrospective was unearthed from GME President Jon Gartenberg’s papers, and a true crime film by James Benning (whose films we exclusively distribute to North American universities) screened at Anthology Film Archives.

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REMINDER: Jon Gartenberg's "Politically-Trenchant New York City Symphony Films (1984-2006)" screens TONIGHT at 8pm at Allied Productions Project Space

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REMINDER: Jon Gartenberg's "Politically-Trenchant New York City Symphony Films (1984-2006)" screens TONIGHT at 8pm at Allied Productions Project Space

REMINDER: Jon Gartenberg's program Politically-Trenchant New York City Symphony Films (1984-2006) screens TONIGHT at 8pm at Allied Productions Project Space (368 East 8th Street, Storefront West). Read on to learn about Gartenberg's commitment to excavating and exhibiting city symphony films, dating back to the early 1970s.

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

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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.

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GME Unearths Jon Gartenberg's 1990 Article on Michael Powell's PEEPING TOM, Now Screening at MoMA

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GME Unearths Jon Gartenberg's 1990 Article on Michael Powell's PEEPING TOM, Now Screening at MoMA

On Wednesday, July 10th at 7pm, and Sunday, July 28th at 4pm, Michael Powell’s classic 1960 thriller PEEPING TOM will screen at The Museum of Modern Art as part of their month-long retrospective Cinema Unbound: The Creative Worlds of Powell and Pressburger. On the occasion of this celebration of Powell and Pressburger’s collaborations (and of Powell’s PEEPING TOM specifically — a controversial solo effort that horrified British audiences and film censors), GME has unearthed an archival gem from Jon Gartenberg’s papers pertaining to Powell’s still-shocking thriller. For the Spring 1990 issue of MoMA’s Members Quarterly, Gartenberg wrote an article that explores the psychological and voyeuristic capacities of the cinematic and photographic mediums as conveyed in both Powell’s PEEPING TOM and Alfred Hitchcock’s beloved 1954 thriller REAR WINDOW.

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May 2024 Roundup Related to GME Titles, Artists, and Colleagues

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May 2024 Roundup Related to GME Titles, Artists, and Colleagues

It’s finally June, and with the start of summer officially just around the corner, here is a recap of screenings, events, and celebrations from May, in New York City and beyond, related to GME’s multifaceted projects. Notable exhibition programs include a suite of films by Man Ray at Boston’s Brattle Theatre and a collaboration between the Film-Makers’ Cooperative and Film at Lincoln Center; both programs featured filmmakers and films GME distributes to universities in North America. Also in May, MoMA and Anthology Film Archives mounted retrospectives of the work of Warren Sonbert’s colleagues Nathaniel Dorsky and Jerome Hiler, both of whom GME featured in a compilation reel of clips from Sonbert’s films. Additionally, GME licensed three photographs from the Raimondo Borea collection for two books and a documentary film.

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Warren Sonbert's HOLIDAY Plays in Chicago In "Tone Glow Presents Pop Music as Prismatic Utopia"

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Warren Sonbert's HOLIDAY Plays in Chicago In "Tone Glow Presents Pop Music as Prismatic Utopia"

This Friday, April 19th, at 7pm, writer and programmer Joshua Minsoo Kim will screen Warren Sonbert’s FRIENDLY WITNESS in the second film program presented by his experimental music newsletter Tone Glow, titled Pop Music in Prismatic Utopia. The program will play at Chicago’s Sweet Void Cinema, a production company and microcinema located in Humboldt Park. GME is proud to represent the work and legacy of Sonbert, whose films — as evidenced by Kim’s program and a number of other screenings and retrospectives within recent years — have been experiencing a renaissance. FRIENDLY WITNESS, in particular, is a significant title in Sonbert’s oeuvre, as it demarcates his return to sound after many years of making silent montage films.

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February 2024 Roundup Related to GME Titles, Artists, and Colleagues

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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.

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