January 2026 Roundup
/Today we recap screenings, events, and celebrations from January related to GME titles, artists, and colleagues. GME kicked off the new year with Péter Lichter’s short film THE GENEVA MECHANISM: A GHOST MOVIE, which was made available to stream for free in the Adrienne Mancia Streaming Room. Notably, the new digital restoration of Warren Sonbert’s short film HALL OF MIRRORS (1966) screened at the Centre Pompidou as part of their series On Violence in America. GME also revisited its expansive slate of new titles offered as Digital Site Licenses last fall, ahead of our new releases this spring.
OFFICIAL KEY ART FOR THE GENEVA MECHANISM.
January 8th — GME
On January 8th, GME made Péter Lichter’s short film THE GENEVA MECHANISM: A GHOST MOVIE available to view for free in the Adrienne Mancia Streaming Room. Olaf Möller, writing for the International Film Festival of Rotterdam, noted: “The Geneva mechanism is the essence of all cinema: a gear that translates a continuous rotation movement into intermittent rotary motion. Here, historical footage of this gear, along with the act and art of film projection, is digitally dissolved, sometimes into a shapeless mess. [It is] a very nostalgia-free film about the end of an era.” In essence, Lichter’s film distills the evolution of the filmic medium into a visually-engaging three-minute short wherein celluloid and digital filmmaking are collapsed into the same abstract field. Encapsulating the transition from analog to digital filmmaking, Lichter's film mirrors GME's own move towards digital film distribution.
January 15th — Librairie Du Cinema Du Pantheon
On January 15th, at the Librairie du Cinema du Pantheon in Paris, the publishing imprint Paris Expérimental hosted a meet and greet and book signing with author Cécile Tourneur to celebrate the release of her new book ECOUTER JONAS MEKAS: DIARIES, NOTES, AND SKETCHES. GME distributes, to North American academic institutions, a number of films by Jonas Mekas as DSL files (as well as on DVD). GME also distributes JONAS MEKAS: THE MAJOR WORKS, THE SIXTIES QUARTET, HE STANDS IN A DESERT COUNTING THE SECONDS OF HIS LIFE, and GUNS OF THE TREES on DVD. Mekas’ films AWARD PRESENTATION TO ANDY WARHOL and SCENES FROM THE LIFE OF ANDY WARHOL are also available on the DVD VISIONS OF WARHOL, alongside films by Marie Menken and Willard Maas.
STILL: HALL OF MIRRORS (1966).
January 18th — Centre Pompidou
On January 18th, Warren Sonbert’s experimental short HALL OF MIRRORS (1966) screened at the Centre Pompidou (in their new screening space at MK2 Bibliothèque) alongside Orson Welles’ feature film noir THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI (1948). Sonbert’s and Welles’ films were featured in a larger program titled On Violence in America, partly inspired by the project Violent America conceived by Lawrence Alloway for MoMA in 1969, which explored violence and its representation in American culture. In the words of curator Jonathan Pouthier, “the program aims to reflect… the current political and cultural situation in the United States after a first year of Trump in the White House. For this project, we have chosen to bring together different cinematic histories and perspectives, creating a dialogue between Hollywood mainstream cinema of the classical period, and underground cinema.” The program, which ran from January 16th—25th, also featured films by Robert Aldrich, Tony Conrad, Ken Jacobs, Jack Smith, Andy Warhol, Claes Oldenburg, and Carolee Schneemann. GME distributes Marie Losier’s documentary about Tony Conrad, DREAMINIMALIST, as a DSL file and DVD. We also distribute the DVD collection VISIONS OF WARHOL, which features films about Andy Warhol by Jonas Mekas, Willard Maas, and Marie Menken. Furthermore, GME financed the production of Ken Jacobs’ 2012 film CYCLOPEAN 3D: LIFE WITH A BEAUTIFUL WOMAN through our Experimental Filmmakers Production Fund.
A new digital restoration of HALL OF MIRRORS is currently available for international rental and purchase from Gartenberg Media as a DSL file. Please contact sales@gartenbergmedia.com for more information.
January 19th — Paris Expérimental
On January 19th, Paris Expérimental announced a centennial celebration of multimedia artist and poet Maurice Lemaître, who was part of the Lettrist movement. The celebration will consist of a series of events and exhibitions throughout the year organized by the Bismuth-Lemaître Endowment Fund. Paris Expérimental helped to popularize Lettrism in France in the early 1990s by publishing Frédérique Devaux's book on the movement, and more recently, François Bovier's.
GME distributes Lemaître’s short films in the collection FILMS IMAGINAIRES (IMAGINARY FILMS), available as both a DVD compilation and DSL files to North American universities. GME also distributes Lemaître’s 1951 feature LE FILM EST DÉJÀ COMMENCÉ ? (HAS THE FEATURE STARTED YET?) as a DSL file as well as a Blu-Ray/DVD combo pack. Lemaître was regarded as the “right-hand man” of Isidore Isou, another key figure in the Lettrist movement. GME distributes Isou’s 1951 feature TRAITÉ DE BAVE ET D'ETERNITÉ as both a DVD and DSL file.
For a complete schedule of the events organized by the Bismuth-Lemaître Foundation, click here.
January 22nd — GME
As the spring semester got underway, GME revisited the expansive slate of new titles we offered as Digital Site Licenses this past fall. These titles are currently available for acquisition and rental by academic and cultural institutions worldwide. To purchase or rent one or more of these titles for institutional use, please contact sales@gartenbergmedia.com. Watch for our new distribution titles this spring!