Fall 2025 DSL Recap
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This fall, GME was pleased to offer an expansive slate of new titles as Digital Site Licenses, available for acquisition by academic and cultural institutions in various territories.
For several years, GME has distributed DVDs and Blu-Rays of moving image works destined exclusively for purchase by the university market in North America. As the transition to server-based media over disk distribution has grown, and even more so due to the teaching restrictions resultant with the spread of Covid-19, institutions have been confronted with a shift to remote modalities and librarians have been tasked with rethinking the physical moving image format for their acquisition programs.
To meet this changing technological need, we launched GME Streamline in 2020. Streamline is a section on GME's website for the distribution of moving image works that we have made available as Digital Site Licenses (DSLs). We offer this service to both academic and cultural institutions for the streaming and programming of moving image works through their own intranet or closed circuit network, in order to further academic teaching as well as library, research, and exhibition use.
By offering curatorially selected titles to universities and cultural institutions as Digital Site Licenses, GME embarked on a renewed journey of making available new discoveries for both academic and public engagement. Through this initiative, we have endeavored to not only expand the integration of these works into canonical film and video histories, but also to broaden their usage and appreciation across a wide array of academic and cultural discourses.
Today, we revisit the wide array of titles offered by GME as DSLs this fall.
NATIVE NEW YORKER
On September 10th, GME was pleased to announce our distribution of Steve Bilich's Native New Yorker (2006) for acquisition and exhibition to cultural institutions worldwide as a Digital Site License. Shot before, during and after 9/11, Bilich's experimental short documentary took several years of filming with a 1924 hand-cranked Cine-Kodak camera. It follows Shaman Trail Scout 'Coyote' as he takes a journey that transcends time, from Inwood Park (where the island was traded for beads and booze), down a native trail (now “Broadway”), and into lower Manhattan (a sacred burial ground, now including the newest natives of this island empire). 24 years since the 9/11 attacks, Bilich's film remains as powerful and relevant as ever.
THE WARREN SONBERT COLLECTION
On September 17th, we announced that Warren Sonbert's early films — from 1966’s AMPHETAMINE through to 1973’s CARRIAGE TRADE — had become available from GME, on an exclusive basis, as new 2K digital restorations for acquisition by universities, museums, and other cultural institutions worldwide. Later, on October 15th, we announced that these early films are available for rental from The Film-Makers’ Cooperative individually. Five of those films can also be rented together as a touring package.
THE PIERRE CLÉMENTI COLLECTION
On September 24th, GME anounced our distribution of the films of Pierre Clémenti as new 2K digital restorations to North American academic institutions. Though best known as an actor, Clémenti's directorial work constitutes a fascinating and long overlooked chapter in 1960s avant-garde film history. The films he directed remained elusive until 2022, when his son Balthazar Clémenti spearheaded 2K restorations of his father’s oeuvre. Included with these digital restorations is a 24-page supplemental booklet about Clémenti and his films, available as a PDF.
RARE SILENT FEATURES FROM UNDERCRANK PRODUCTIONS
In celebration of Silent Movie Day on September 29th, GME announced our new partnership with Undercrank Productions to distribute rare silent films to North American academic institutions on digital formats. Undercrank was founded in 2013 by silent film historian and composer Ben Model. Each digital restoration has been spearheaded by Model and is presented in new digital scans in either HD or 2K, and features new musical scores on piano or theatre organ. The five Undercrank titles that GME now distributes includes two early Frank Borzage films, two features starring unsung screen comedian Raymond Griffith, and a rarely-screened Western starring Tom Mix.
南洋三部曲 (THE NANYANG TRILOGY)
On October 8th, GME was pleased to make available three rediscovered classics of Cantonese cinema for exhibition rental and sale to cultural institutions worldwide. 南洋三部曲 (THE NANYANG TRILOGY) is a triptych of films filmed in Singapore and Malaysia that was produced by the Kong Ngee Company in 1957. The titles contained within this trilogy are 椰林月 (MOON OVER MALAYA), 血染相思谷 (BLOOD STAINS THE VALLEY OF LOVE), and 唐山阿嫂 (CHINA WIFE). Long elusive, the digital restoration of these films was spearheaded by the Asian Film Archive beginning in 2017.
HITCHCOCKTOBER
On October 22nd, GME celebrated Hitchcocktober with five lesser-known, early films by Alfred Hitchcock, made in his native England prior to his relocation to Hollywood in the early 1940s. These features, distributed by GME as Digital Site Licenses in conjunction with Kino Lorber, find the director working in various genres outside of the thriller territory that eventually made him a household name and earned him the moniker “The Master of Suspense.”
BOOKENDING NEW HOLLYWOOD: WHO KILLED TEDDY BEAR? AND MIXED BLOOD
On October 30th, GME announced our distribution of new 4K restorations by Vinegar Syndrome of two seminal New York City thrillers: Joseph Cates’ WHO KILLED TEDDY BEAR? and Paul Morrissey’s MIXED BLOOD. Released in 1965 and 1984 respectively, WHO KILLED TEDDY BEAR? and MIXED BLOOD both bookend and typify the "New Hollywood" era of the late 1960s and 1970s. Their transgressive explorations of violence, sexuality, social taboos and urban dysfunction emulate such better-known films as MIDNIGHT COWBOY (1969), THE PANIC IN NEEDLE PARK (1971), and TAXI DRIVER (1975).
JONAS MEKAS: THE AVANT-GARDEFATHER
On November 6th, GME announced our distribution of films by Jonas Mekas, widely regarded as the Godfather of American Avant-Garde Cinema, to universities in North America as DSLs in conjunction with Re:Voir Video. (To purchase these titles on DVD, click here).
NOIRVEMBER
On November 24th, and in recognition of Noirvember, GME reflected on our collection of noir titles on DSL, DVD, and/or Blu-Ray. From bona fide classics to long forgotten and recently rediscovered diamonds-in-the-rough, these macabre gems are currently available for North American institutional acquisition in conjunction with both Kino Lorber and Flicker Alley.
ELEGY IN THE STREETS
December 1st is World AIDS Day, an international day dedicated to raising awareness of the AIDS pandemic and honoring those who we have lost to HIV/AIDS. On this day of consciousness-raising, mourning, and remembrance, GME announced our distribution of Jim Hubbard’s ELEGY IN THE STREETS (1989) as a Digital Site License to cultural institutions worldwide.