As we venture into autumn, GME reflects on a robust summer season of programming in New York City. Numerous films and filmmakers associated with our collection screened at various venues throughout July and August.

In July, The Metropolitan Museum of Art hosted their annual three-part series Short Films for Short Nights, which consisted of dozens of rare short films produced between 1900 and 1973. This year’s theme explored “faces in the crowd.” To quote the Met’s curatorial note: "From close-up portraits to chance encounters and bustling city crowds, these works capture the full spectrum of the human experience."

On Friday, July 10, films by Maria Lassnig (1973’s SELF-PORTRAIT), Valie Export (1966’s SELF-PORTRAIT WITH HEAD), Dore O. (1968’s ALASKA), and Marie Menken and Willard Maas (1943’s GEOGRAPHY OF THE BODY) were featured in the first program in the Met series, titled Me and You. GME distributes Lassnig's SELF-PORTRAIT in the collection MARIA LASSNIG: ANIMATION FILMS; Export’s MANN & FRAU & ANIMAL (1970—73), …REMOTE…REMOTE… (1973) and SYNTAGMA (1984) in the collection THREE EXPERIMENTAL SHORT FILMS (as well as 1976’s INVISIBLE ADVERSARIES, Export’s feature-length collaboration with Peter Weibel); Dore O.’s ALASKA (1968), LAWALE (1969), KALDALON (1970-71), BLONDE BARBAREI (1972), KASKARA (1974), and FROZEN FLASHES (1976) in the collection FIGURES OF ABSENCE; and Menken’s ANDY WARHOL (1965) and Maas’ ANDY WARHOL’S SILVER FLOTATIONS (1966) in the collection VISIONS OF WARHOL. GME also distributes Martina Kudláček’s 2006 documentary chronicling Menken’s life and career, titled NOTES ON MARIE MENKEN.

On Friday, July 24, as part of the third program in Short Films for Short Nights, titled Crowds and Power, Philippe Garrel’s ACTUA 1 (1968) screened alongside Charlie Chaplin’s KID AUTO RACES AT VENICE (1914). GME distributes six titles by Garrel on DVD. We also distribute Chaplin’s KID AUTO RACES AT VENICE in the DVD collection CHAPLIN AT KEYSTONE.

In addition to the Keystone Chaplin boxset, GME distributes numerous early short films by Chaplin the collection CHAPLIN’S ESSANAY COMEDIES; among them, 1915’s IN THE PARK. This film screened on July 25th in the program Come to My (Avant-)Garden, presented by The Film-Makers’ Cooperative at Le Petit Versailles Community Garden in collaboration with Allied Productions. The program was co-curated by GME associate (and the Coop’s Artistic Director) Matt McKinzie in collaboration with Zoe Beloff and Philomena Mattes.

In addition to Chaplin’s film, Come to My (Avant-)Garden featured Marie Menken’s GLIMPSE OF THE GARDEN (1957), Stan Brakhage’s THE GARDEN OF EARLY DELIGHTS (1981), and Jack Waters’ BERLIN/NY (1986). Menken’s GLIMPSE OF THE GARDEN is included as a bonus feature on the DVD release of Kudláček’s NOTES ON MARIE MENKEN. GME also distributes Brakhage’s ANTICIPATION OF THE NIGHT (1958) as a DVD and DSL. Moreover, while working as Program Director of the Estate Project for Artists with AIDS in the early 1990s, GME President Jon Gartenberg preserved Waters’ BERLIN/NY.

IMAGES OF GLAUBER ROCHA IN Paula Gaitán’S *DAYS IN SINTRA.*

Numerous Chaplin films screened at Anthology Film Archives throughout the month of August, including the classic features CITY LIGHTS (1931) and THE GOLD RUSH (1925) as well as the early shorts A WOMAN (1915), EASY STREET (1917), THE CURE (1917), and PAY DAY (1922). GME distributes A WOMAN in the aforementioned Essanay comedies collection, as well as EASY STREET and THE CURE in the collection CHAPLIN’S MUTUAL COMEDIES.

On August 8th and 14th, Anthology screened Glauber Rocha’s landmark feature BLACK GOD, WHITE DEVIL (1973). GME distributes Paula Gaitán’s DAYS IN SINTRA (2008) as a DSL file; Gaitán is Rocha’s widow and her experimental documentary (which Gartenberg programmed at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival) functions as an alchemic tone poem for Rocha. Earlier, in July, Anthology also screened Holly Fisher’s award-winning 1992 experimental feature BULLETS FOR BREAKFAST. GME distributes this film in a DVD collection that includes four shorts by Fisher as bonus features.

Stay tuned for forthcoming DVD and DSL announcements from GME this fall!

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