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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STILL: WARREN SONBERT’S AMPHETAMINE (1966). SOURCE: GARTENBERG MEDIA ENTERPRISES.
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.” As noted by Nagington:
AMPHETAMINE was [Sonbert’s] first film, made in 1966 three years before the Stonewall Riots. As such, it was situated in a broader step change towards LGBT rights and representation in the USA, as well as a broader project of breaking the mould of Hollywood heteropatriarchal representations of gender and sexuality. At the time of its release, it received almost universal praise and it, along with several other films from [Sonbert’s] early career, quickly gave rise to critical acclaim… AMPHETAMINE engages a 1960s Motown soundtrack to produce playful resonances that we see on screen but which also reverberate with… experiences of chemsex some 50 years later… Many of the accoutrements of chemsex are panned over — drugs, needles, cans, and knives — and we then see the ritualised loading of a syringe begin. Our queer subject does not inject this drug though; instead, he hands the syringe over to another man who places a tourniquet around his arm and just as the needle pierces the skin the music track effortlessly segues into The Supremes track Baby Love. The lyrics ‘baby love, my baby love’ ring out with the joy of being in unity with another.
STILL: WARREN SONBERT’S AMPHETAMINE (1966). SOURCE: GARTENBERG MEDIA ENTERPRISES.
Nagington is a lecturer in Health Sciences at The University of Manchester, UK. His research focuses on the intersections of health and cultural analysis, with interests in chemsex, ethics, HIV, sexual health, Covid-19, and palliative care.
Since Sonbert’s 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 facilitate the publication of original documents from his paper archive, which is housed at Harvard University.
For more information about Sonbert’s AMPHETAMINE, click here. For more information about Sonbert’s body of work and GME’s commitment to furthering his legacy, click here.