LGBTQ+ Films and Filmmakers

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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Revisiting Ken Jacobs' CYCLOPEAN 3D for Home Movie Day

Revisiting Ken Jacobs' CYCLOPEAN 3D for Home Movie Day

For last year’s Home Movie Day, GME highlighted Hollywood icon Rock Hudson, who appears in Mark Rappaport’s found footage video essay ROCK HUDSON’S HOME MOVIES. This year, we turn our attention to an avant-garde icon, Ken Jacobs, whose experimental “home movie” CYCLOPEAN 3D: LIFE WITH A BEAUTIFUL WOMAN was produced by GME through the Experimental Filmmakers Production Fund. GME President Jon Gartenberg presented CYCLOPEAN 3D the International Film Festival of Rotterdam in 2012, where he dubbed the film Jacobs’ “most directly autobiographical work to date.”

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

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

Today we recap the numerous screenings, events, and celebrations from October — in New York City and beyond — related to GME titles, artists, and colleagues. Notably, GME President Jon Gartenberg collaborated with Elena Rossi-Snook to curate a program of films dealing with sex and censorship that screened at the New York Public Library. Additionally, a number of titles that GME distributes to North American universities appeared in screenings mounted by several noteworthy institutions last month, including the Harvard Film Archive, Metrograph, Light Industry, and the Film-Makers’ Cooperative.

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ZANZIBAR Film Collective

ZANZIBAR Film Collective

During the volatile late 1960s in Paris, the filmmaking collective known as Zanzibar began creating outsider movies, many of which are now lost or neglected. Though all members were cinephiles, they had only modest filmmaking experience. Still, the Zanzibar films are infused with the countercultural energy and restlessness of the times, thanks to the group’s refreshing lack of experience and regard for cinematic convention. GME distributes a number of films that emerged from the Zanzibar collective on DSL and DVD to the North American institutional market. These films have continued relevance among cinephiles today; notably, Metrograph mounted the series One More Time: The Cinema of Daniel Pommereulle last month, which featured a number of Zanzibar titles that we also distribute.

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Silent Movie Day

Today, September 29th, has been established by an international group of film archivists as Silent Movie Day! Head to the DVD Distribution section of our website and learn about the myriad International Silent Classics in our catalogue, currently available for institutional rental or acquisition in North America.

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James Earl Jones Remembered with Photographs by Hugh Bell

James Earl Jones Remembered with Photographs by Hugh Bell

GME remembers legendary actor James Earl Jones with photographs taken by Hugh Bell, which capture Jones and his co-stars in the original off-Broadway production of Jean Genet’s play The Blacks. Jones passed away on September 9th, 2024, at the age of 93.

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

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

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

As the summer season winds down, we reflect on screenings, events, and celebrations from August related to GME titles, artists, and colleagues. Notably, GME President Jon Gartenberg curated a program of politically-trenchant New York city symphony films that screened at Allied Productions Artist Space, while GME associate Matt McKinzie included two films by Warren Sonbert in a program of 1960s queer avant-garde shorts featuring Motown music at Spectacle Theater.

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

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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