The Warren Sonbert Collection
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The Estate of Warren Sonbert has previously named GME as the custodian of his legacy. Since Sonbert’s untimely passing in 1995, 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, which are now housed at Harvard University and reprinted in a special 2014 issue of Framework: The Journal of Cinema and Media. A second issue of Framework, consisting of contemporaneous writings about Sonbert’s early films (from 1966’s AMPHETAMINE through to 1973’s CARRIAGE TRADE) was published in 2024. Jon Gartenberg was Guest Editor for both Framework issues.
Warren Sonbert was one of the seminal figures working in American experimental film. He started making films in 1966 while a student at New York University. When he was just 20 years old, Sonbert’s first career retrospective drew the attention of the film critic Stuart Byron, who wrote in the commercial trade journal Variety:
Probably not since Andy Warhol’s THE CHELSEA GIRLS had its first showing at the Cinematheque... almost a year and a half ago has an ‘underground’ film event caused as much curiosity and interest in N.Y.’s non-underground world as did four days of showings of the complete films of Warren Sonbert at the Cinematheque’s new location on Wooster St.
Scenes from Warren Sonbert's early films: AMPHETAMINE, WHERE DID OUR LOVE GO?, HALL OF MIRRORS (all 1966), THE BAD AND THE BEAUTIFUL, and THE TENTH LEGION (both 1967).
Sonbert’s earliest films, in which he captured the spirit of his generation, were inspired first by the university milieu and then by the denizens of Andy Warhol’s Factory scene, including superstars Rene Ricard and Gerard Malanga. In these loosely structured narratives, Sonbert boldly experimented with the relationship between filmmaker and protagonists through extensively choreographed handheld camera movements within each shot. The mood of these films was further modulated by chiaroscuro effects, achieved primarily through natural lighting (in both indoor and outdoor shots), combined with variations in the raw film stock and exposure, and the use of rock ‘n’ roll music on the soundtrack.
Scenes from a selection of Warren Sonbert's Montage Films from 1968-1997: CARRIAGE TRADE (1973), A WOMAN'S TOUCH (1983), NOBLESSE OBLIGE (1981), FRIENDLY WITNESS (1989), and WHIPLASH (1995-1997).
Beginning in 1968 with TUXEDO THEATRE, Sonbert began traveling the world and created tightly edited, silent, montage films. He became known as the leading proponent of polyvalent montage, in which, according to Sonbert, his films were “not strictly involved with plot or morality but rather the language of film as regards time, composition, cutting, light, distance, extension of backgrounds to foregrounds, what you see and what you don’t, a jig-saw puzzle of postcards to produce various displace effects.”
TUXEDO THEATRE was an early version of the film that Sonbert ultimately considered his “magnum opus,” 1973’s CARRIAGE TRADE. Described by Sonbert as “a 16mm, 60-minute, 6-year compilation of travels, home movies, documents, shown silent,” CARRIAGE TRADE indelibly interweaves footage taken from Sonbert’s journeys throughout Europe, Africa, Asia, and the United States together with shots he removed from the camera originals of a number of his earlier films. An evolving work-in-progress, the 61-minute version released in 1973 is the definitive form in which Sonbert realized CARRIAGE TRADE.
With CARRIAGE TRADE, Sonbert began to challenge the theories espoused by the great Soviet filmmakers of the 1920s; he particularly disliked the ‘knee-jerk’ reaction produced by Eisenstein montage… [Sonbert’s polyvalent montage] approach… ultimately affords the viewer multi-faceted readings of the connections between shots through the spectator's assimilation of (according to Sonbert) ‘the changing relations of the movement of objects, the gestures of figures, familiar worldwide icons, rituals and reactions, rhythm, spacing and density of images.’ —Jon Gartenberg
Sonbert’s early films — from AMPHETAMINE through to CARRIAGE TRADE — are currently available from GME as Digital Site Licenses (DSLs). These films are also available for rental through the New York Film-Makers' Cooperative. Sonbert’s montage films will become available from GME later in 2025.
The Early Films of Warren Sonbert
AMPHETAMINE (1966)
“Warren Sonbert began making films in 1966, as a student at New York University's film school in New York. In his first films, he uniquely captured the spirit of his generation, and was inspired both by his university milieu and by the denizens of the Warhol art scene. In both provocative and playful fashion, AMPHETAMINE depicts young men shooting amphetamines and making love in the era of sex, drugs and rock and roll.” —Jon Gartenberg
“A heart-stopping film… beautiful and pure.” —James Stoller, The New American Cinema: A Critical Anthology
WHERE DID OUR LOVE GO? (1966)
“It is a film about The Group. About the tribal atmosphere that pervades New York Society. A randomly edited ‘home movie’ in which the people I care for most are inextricably mixed together, flowing from one to another. Faces appear and reappear, an ever-changing kaleidoscope.” —Warren Sonbert
“WHERE DID OUR LOVE GO? feels like both a valentine and a farewell to a generation… the generation which no one, probably, understands but which Sonbert, in a series of tender and moving moments, has revealed to us. I could watch this film a hundred times; it made me feel older than I am, but it also opened my eyes and my heart.” —James Stoller, Village Voice
HALL OF MIRRORS (1966)
“HALL OF MIRRORS connects directly to Warhol via Rene Ricard and Gerard Malanga… a triptych in seven minutes’ time, the film begins by repurposing an NYU editing assignment for which students were instructed to reassemble a narrative climax from loose ends of an old Hollywood programmer.” —Max Goldberg, Berkeley Art Museum / Pacific Film Archive
“Sonbert’s HALL OF MIRRORS is an especially poignant film in [the] era of Covid-19, as it expresses in emblematic fashion the sadness, anxiety and disorientation caused by solitude as a result of social distancing.” —Jon Gartenberg
THE TENTH LEGION (1967)
In THE TENTH LEGION, Warren Sonbert presents his college age friends at work and play, wandering the streets of New York City, lounging, shopping, and posing for the camera. The film stylistically exemplifies Sonbert’s masterful use of a constantly moving hand-held camera as it trails the teenage protagonists in choreographed fashion, and of chiaroscuro lighting effects in interior scenes.
“THE TENTH LEGION is a fantastic film… I could watch this film several hours on end because it has no real beginning or end, it just goes on and on. Not that it is repetitious, for it is, just as each day follows another.” —Gregg Barrios, Hollywood Harbinger
THE BAD AND THE BEAUTIFUL (1967)
THE BAD AND THE BEAUTIFUL can be seen as Warren Sonbert’s foremost experiment in negotiating the space between his hand-held camera and the protagonists in his field of vision. Editing in camera, Sonbert then assembled together the 100-foot camera rolls into a series of mini-narratives.
“THE BAD AND THE BEAUTIFUL, consisting of several edited-in-the-camera portraits of twosomes, tells us everything we need to know about couple-love, the tenderness, the silly horsing around, the compromises, the dead spots, the clinging to each other. It is a heartbreaking movie.” —Philip Lopate, Film Culture
TUXEDO THEATRE (1968)
Filmed in 1968, Warren Sonbert considered TUXEDO THEATRE an early version of — or “dress rehearsal” for — the film he would ultimately regard as his magnum opus, 1973’s CARRIAGE TRADE. As in CARRIAGE TRADE, Sonbert traveled around the world to create a tightly-edited work of polyvalent montage in TUXEDO THEATRE. It was his first foray into this style of filmmaking following a series of short films, set to the popular music of the time, that documented his contemporaries (including Andy Warhol’s Factory scene) in mid-1960s New York.
CARRIAGE TRADE (1973)
Warren Sonbert considered CARRIAGE TRADE (1973) his “magnum opus.” In this film, Sonbert interweaves footage taken from his journeys throughout Europe, Africa, Asia, and the United States, together with shots he removed from the camera originals of a number of his earlier films.
“A 16mm, 60-minute, 6-year compilation of travels, home movies, documents, shown silent. Not strictly involved with plot or morality but rather the language of film as regards [to] time, composition, cutting, light, distance, tension of backgrounds to foregrounds, what you see and what you don’t.” —Warren Sonbert
The Montage Films of Warren Sonbert
Warren Sonbert’s experiments in polyvalent montage filmmaking comprised the largest portion of his career, spanning CARRIAGE TRADE (1973) through to his final film, WHIPLASH (1995). GME is pleased to present new digital restorations of Sonbert’s montage films across three curated packages: Sonbert in the Seventies, Sonbert in the Eighties, and Warren Sonbert: Music & Montage.
Throughout the 1970s and much of the 1980s, Sonbert documented his global travels with his Bolex camera and edited his footage together sans musical accompaniment. As compared to his earlier shorts — youthful vignettes set to pop hits of the day that embraced a quasi-narrative style — these meticulously-edited works are silent and, with their variegated imagery and rich sociopolitical subtext, can be viewed prismatically.
As noted by Language poet Alan Bernheimer: “Narrative concerns pervade [Sonbert’s] films on at least three levels, all working with and against each other: nano narrative within the shot, ‘collisional’ montage, and the meta-narratives or themes running through each film.” In their contemplative, intellectual, and visually-engaging approach, these longer films explored everything from diverse cultural customs and locales (CARRIAGE TRADE) to gender roles (1983’s A WOMAN’S TOUCH), tensions between art versus industry (1978’s DIVIDED LOYALTIES), and the effects of global institutions of power on the proletariat (1988’s HONOR AND OBEY).
Beginning with 1989’s FRIENDLY WITNESS, Sonbert once again began using soundtracks in his films, thereby fusing the musicality characteristic of his early New York shorts with the complex montage style he had honed over the past 15 years. The artist’s return to music does not undercut these films’ poetic and political dimensions, however. For instance, the inclusion of Motown music in FRIENDLY WITNESS functions as a nostalgic recall of Sonbert’s youth. Meanwhile, the employment of Serguéi Prokófiev’s “Piano Concerto No. 1” in SHORT FUSE (1991), among other dynamic tracks, emphasizes the psychological intensity of the footage and aurally reifies Sonbert’s emotional state upon learning of his HIV diagnosis.
Sonbert passed away due to complications from AIDS before completing 1995’s WHIPLASH. His former student and longtime friend Jeff Scher assembled the final edit based on Sonbert’s specifications; this effort was overseen by Sonbert’s partner Ascension Serrano and GME President Jon Gartenberg. Scher has also acted as the Restoration Advisor on these new digitizations of Sonbert’s films, thereby denoting a full-circle moment for GME’s stewardship of Sonbert’s oeuvre and legacy.
SONBERT IN THE SEVENTIES
Beginning in the 1970s, Warren Sonbert moved away from the pop music-inspired, quasi-narrative style of his early New York films towards a more sophisticated filmmaking approach that came to be known as “polyvalent montage.” Sociologists dubbed the Seventies the “Me Decade,” and while many artists followed trend and embraced introspection, Sonbert chose to look outward. These films — which include 1973’s CARRIAGE TRADE, 1976’s RUDE AWAKENING, and 1978’s DIVIDED LOYALTIES — intricately amalgamate footage from the artist’s many global travels during this enigmatic and politically-fraught decade.
SONBERT IN THE EIGHTIES
Sonbert continued working in silent polyvalent montage well into the 1980s — a time when many Americans turned to reactionary values under the Reagan administration. In spite of the country’s neo-conservative climate, Sonbert’s films did not sacrifice their global purview, intellectual sophistication, or political edge. From 1981’s NOBLESSE OBLIGE to 1983’s A WOMAN’S TOUCH, 1986’s THE CUP AND THE LIP, and 1988’s HONOR AND OBEY, Sonbert explored everything from gender roles to religious organizations, the effect of global institutions of power on the proletariat, and the aftermath of Harvey Milk’s assassination.
WARREN SONBERT: MUSIC & MONTAGE
Beginning with 1989’s FRIENDLY WITNESS, Sonbert once again began using music in his films, thereby fusing the aural style of his early New York works with the polyvalent montage approach he had honed as a silent filmmaker over the past 15 years. 1991’s SHORT FUSE is perhaps the artist’s most intense work — featuring a diverse and dynamic soundtrack and created shortly following his HIV diagnosis — while his final film, 1995’s WHIPLASH, was completed posthumously.