August 13, 2024

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

August 13, 2024/ Jon Gartenberg

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.

Powell, Pressburger, and Sonbert: How RUDE AWAKENING Was Influenced by The Archers

July 30, 2024/ Jon Gartenberg

On the occasion of Cinema Unbound: The Creative Worlds of Powell and Pressburger, a month-long retrospective at The Museum of Modern Art showcasing the work of directors Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, GME reflects on Warren Sonbert’s 1976 polyvalent montage film RUDE AWAKENING, which was directly inspired by the legendary British filmmaking duo. Powell and Pressburger — the creative partnership behind such classics as THE RED SHOES (1946) and BLACK NARCISSUS (1947) — produced and distributed their work under their company “The Archers,” which was denoted at the beginning of their films with a logo featuring an arrow landing in the center of a bullseye. Sonbert explicitly echoes Powell and Pressburger’s logo in RUDE AWAKENING by starting the film with a brief shot of a young man shooting a bow and arrow, prior to his montage footage commencing.

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

July 10, 2024/ Jon Gartenberg

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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