GME Licensed Stills from Warren Sonbert's AMPHETAMINE for Dr. Maurice Nagington's book THE MORAL LESSONS OF CHEMSEX: A CRITICAL APPROACH

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GME Licensed Stills from Warren Sonbert's AMPHETAMINE for Dr. Maurice Nagington's book THE MORAL LESSONS OF CHEMSEX: A CRITICAL APPROACH

Dr. Maurice Nagington’s book The Moral Lessons of Chemsex: A Critical Approach was published by Routledge on December 23, 2024, and is now available to own in print and digital editions. Two stills from Warren Sonbert’s debut film AMPHETAMINE (1966) were licensed by GME to appear in the pages of Nagington’s book. Those stills, which depict young gay men using intravenous drugs, are well-suited for Nagington’s book, which “explores how gay and bi men’s lived experiences of chemsex intersect with its cultural representations.”

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FRAMEWORK, Volume 64, No. 2: The Early Films of Warren Sonbert (1966-1973)

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FRAMEWORK, Volume 64, No. 2: The Early Films of Warren Sonbert (1966-1973)

Gartenberg Media Enterprises is proud to announce the publication of Volume 64, No. 2, of Framework: The Journal of Cinema and Media, which is devoted to writings about the early films of Warren Sonbert. Jon Gartenberg was named the custodian of Sonbert’s legacy, and since Sonbert's passing, GME has worked on an extensive project to preserve, distribute, and curate career retrospectives of his work on an international basis. Furthermore, GME has facilitated the publication of original documents from his paper archive, which is now housed at Harvard University. This journal is Framework’s second issue devoted to Sonbert’s life and career. Volume 56, No. 1, published in Spring 2015, focused on Sonbert’s own writings. Gartenberg served as Guest Editor on both Framework issues.

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Warren Sonbert's CARRIAGE TRADE Screened This Month at Anthology Film Archives

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Warren Sonbert's CARRIAGE TRADE Screened This Month at Anthology Film Archives

On Saturday, April 12th, at 7:30pm, Warren Sonbert’s CARRIAGE TRADE screened at Anthology Film Archives as part of their Essential Cinema series, “a special series of films screened on a repertory basis… assembled in 1970—75 by Anthology’s Film Selection Committee — James Broughton, Ken Kelman, Peter Kubelka, P. Adams Sitney, and Jonas Mekas.” Jon Gartenberg was named the custodian of Sonbert’s legacy, and since Sonbert's passing, GME has worked on an extensive project to preserve, distribute, and curate career retrospectives of his work on an international basis.

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Three Warren Sonbert Films Screened at Doc Films at University of Chicago

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Three Warren Sonbert Films Screened at Doc Films at University of Chicago

On Sunday, April 13th, at 7pm, three films by Warren Sonbert — 1966’s HALL OF MIRRORS, 1986’s THE CUP AND THE LIP, and 1989’s FRIENDLY WITNESS — screened at Doc Films at the University of Chicago on 16mm. This program was introduced by film scholar Fred Camper, who has written extensively about Sonbert’s films, and screened as part of a larger Doc Films series curated by Hannah Yang, titled Encounters in the Cinema. Yang describes the series as “draw[ing] attention to… the way in which both film and spectator shape each other, and cinema as a whole, in the dark space of the movie theater.”

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The Sonbert Renaissance

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The Sonbert Renaissance

In recent years, the work of filmmaker Warren Sonbert has experienced a renaissance among film critics, scholars, cinephiles, and the general public. Sonbert’s films have proven especially popular with younger audiences around the globe who are discovering his work for the first time.

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Read Jon Gartenberg's Program Note for Abigail Child's THE SUBURBAN TRILOGY

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Read Jon Gartenberg's Program Note for Abigail Child's THE SUBURBAN TRILOGY

On Friday, March 28th, filmmaker and poet Abigail Child presented her feature-length cinematic triptych THE SUBURBAN TRILOGY at the Film-Makers’ Cooperative, of which she is a longtime member. THE SUBURBAN TRILOGY is comprised of three films Child created over the span of a decade: CAKE AND STEAK (2004), THE FUTURE IS BEHIND YOU (2004), and SURF AND TURF (2008—11). Child describes the trilogy as “prismatic” and being “about girlhood and the immigrant dream, focusing on post-WWII North American suburbs and… the war in Europe, critically seen through the lens of gender, property and myths of nation.” GME President Jon Gartenberg is a longtime friend and collaborator of Child’s and has programmed her work at film festivals internationally, including THE SUBURBAN TRILOGY, which was screened at the Pesaro Film Festival. Gartenberg contributed the program note for this screening at the Film-Makers’ Cooperative, which can be read here.

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January 2025 Roundup Related to GME Titles, Artists, and Colleagues

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January 2025 Roundup Related to GME Titles, Artists, and Colleagues

Today we recap screenings, events, and celebrations from January, in New York City and beyond, related to GME titles, artists, and colleagues. In the first half of the month, a number of films that GME distributes to universities in North America were programmed at Anthology Film Archives. In the latter half of the month, GME highlighted the work of photographers Raimondo Borea, Hugh Bell, and Jack Mitchell. Specifically, Borea and Bell’s oeuvres were highlighted with the release of GME's New Photo Licensing Reel, and Mitchell’s 1963 portraits of dancer Maria Tallchief were revisited ahead of the New York City Ballet’s celebration of Tallchief’s centennial. Additionally, Mitchell’s 1994 images of Paul Taylor dancing with Mikhail Baryshnikov were presented in a new video, in recognition of the Jerome Robbins Dance Division’s 2025 Dance Symposium celebrating Baryshnikov and his legacy.

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Warren Sonbert's HALL OF MIRRORS Screens at New Music Circle on January 18th

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Warren Sonbert's HALL OF MIRRORS Screens at New Music Circle on January 18th

On Saturday, January 18th, at 7pm, Missouri’s New Music Circle will screen Warren Sonbert’s third film, HALL OF MIRRORS (1966), in a program of experimental films that were made in the first decade of the organization’s existence (1959—1969). GME is the custodian of Sonbert’s legacy, and since his passing 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. HALL OF MIRRORS is an outgrowth of one of Sonbert’s film classes at NYU taught by Carl Lerner, the editor of such Hollywood features as 12 ANGRY MEN (1957) and REQUIEM FOR A HEAVYWEIGHT (1962). Sonbert was provided with outtakes from a Hollywood film photographed by Hal Mohr to re-edit into a narrative sequence.

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2025 Photo Licensing Reel

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2025 Photo Licensing Reel

GME's Photo Licensing Reel comprises a vast array of photographs taken by Raimondo Borea (1926—1982) and Hugh Bell (1927—2012), whose collections are represented by Gartenberg Media Enterprises for licensing, exhibition, and placement.

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LGBTQ+ Films and Filmmakers

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LGBTQ+ Films and Filmmakers

Beginning in the 1980s, Queer Studies became popular in academic curricula and has resulted, over the ensuing decades, in a body of literature about films and filmmakers viewed through this lens. In honor of LGBTQ+ History Month, GME highlights an array of moving image works that we distribute (both classic and contemporary) by LGBTQ+ artists and/or about topics and themes relevant to the LGBTQ+ community. These works are available to academic institutions in North America, and are distributed in collaboration withIndex Edition, Re:Voir Video, Flicker Alley, MētisPresses, Kino Lorber, and Edition Filmmuseum.

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