GME News
This Thanksgiving, in recognition of the history and plight of Indigenous Peoples, Gartenberg Media is once again proud to distribute Steve Bilich's Native New Yorker to academic and cultural institutions worldwide.
Read MoreThe 28th annual San Francisco Silent Film Festival (SFSFF) took place at the Orinda Theatre from November 12th to 16th. The largest and most prestigious festival devoted to silent film in North America, SFSFF presented 22 programs of rare and classic silent films, accompanied by live musicians, including a number of recent film restorations. A number of titles by filmmakers that GME distributes to North American academic institutions screened at the festival this year.
Read MoreToday we recap screenings, events, and celebrations from October related to GME titles, artists, and colleagues. Notably, GME announced a number of new titles for distribution, including: five silent short films from Undercrank Productions, three unsung classics of Cantonese cinema recently rediscovered by the Asian Film Archive, five early British films by Alfred Hitchcock, and two overlooked New Hollywood “bookends” restored and re-released by Vinegar Syndrome. GME also announced the distribution of Warren Sonbert’s early films — for rental on digital formats — through The Film-Makers’ Cooperative, where they were originally distributed on 16mm beginning in the 1960s.
Read MoreOn Tuesday, October 28th, The Film-Makers’ Cooperative presented a program of recent city-themed films by Mark Street, as well as an accompanying program of older city-themed works from the Coop’s collection co-curated by Street and GME associate Matt McKinzie. The program was titled THE REFRACTED CITY and showcased Street’s films RIVER OF DAYS, LUNETTE, ALL DAY AND ALL OF THE NIGHT, CLEAR ICE FERN, THE GRAIN OF BELFAST and DESCENT, alongside Marie Menken’s GO GO GO, Donna Deitch’s SHE WAS A VISITOR, Rudy Burckhardt’s SQUARE TIMES, Stan Brakhage’s THE WONDER RING, and Rick Liss’ NO YORK CITY.
GME President Jon Gartenberg curated numerous films by Street while working as a programmer at the Tribeca Film Festival from 2003 to 2014. Gartenberg once noted, about Street’s films: “The globe is Mark Street’s cinematic canvas onto which he impresses shimmering reflections and lyric montage sequences.” Gartenberg later joined Street on a day of filming in New York City, as part of an experience with a filmmaker that he won at an auction at The Film-Makers’ Cooperative. The resulting 16mm work — which Street titled CITY WALK — is a unique, one-of-a-kind piece in GME’s archive of experimental filmmakers’ work.
CITY WALK was included as a surprise addition to Street’s program at the Coop. Gartenberg wrote a heartfelt note about the experience of making CITY WALK with Street, which McKinzie read on his behalf.
Read MoreTonight, October 7th, at 5:30pm in the Bruno Walter Auditorium, the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts will screen experimental works from the Reserve Film and Video Collection that explores the history of queer filmmakers. The program, titled What’s Happening? Affirmations: A Celebration of the LGBTQ+ Gaze, includes 16mm prints from Jack Smith and Gregory Markopoulos as well as an important selection of films by women filmmakers (such as Barbara Hammer and Sadie Benning) and a seminal work by African-American artist Marlon Riggs.
This event is being held in recognition of LGBTQ+ History Month and is part of a larger series that looks at “deep cuts” from the Reserve Film and Video Collection's historic 16mm film and video holdings. Co-curated by GME President Jon Gartenberg and RFVC Film Collection Specialist Elena Rossi-Snook, this screening features films that carve out creative queer identities from an historically heteronormative society in celebratory fashion.
Read MoreGartenberg Media Enterprises is pleased to announce 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. To inquire about the institutional acquisition of Clémenti's films, click here.
Warren Sonbert (1947—1995) was one of the seminal figures working in American experimental film. His early films — from 1966’s AMPHETAMINE through to 1973’s CARRIAGE TRADE — are currently available from GME on an exclusive basis as new 2K digital restorations for acquisition by universities, museums, and other cultural institutions worldwide.
Read MoreShot before, during and after 9/11, Steve Bilich's experimental short documentary Native New Yorker 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.
Read MoreOver the past several months, GME has paid homage to Adrienne Mancia by showcasing films in the Adrienne Mancia Streaming Room that she championed throughout her prolific career as a film exhibitor and curator. We now turn our focus to one of our company’s major projects: the excavation of libraries of celluloid films that have been abandoned in warehouses which GME has subsequently repatriated to archives for preservation and exhibition. For lighter, end-of-summer fare, we present Leopold Lindtberg's SWISS TOUR (1949) — a project that cuts across the various facets and activities of our company, including film archiving, distribution, and exhibition.
Read MoreFrom July 30th to August 5th, The Museum of Modern Art will present its third annual Silent Movie Week. This year’s programming is comprised of seven recent silent film restorations screened over seven consecutive evenings. MoMA’s week-long celebration commences with the Museum’s digital restoration of Walther Ruttmann’s BERLIN: SYMPHONY OF A CITY (1927), which will be shown with live musical accompaniment in the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden. GME distributes BERLIN: SYMPHONY OF A CITY to North American universities as a DVD publication that also includes Ruttmann’s 1929 feature MELODY OF THE WORLD, and 12 short films by Ruttmann as bonus features. Also included in this release are a selection of Ruttmann’s paintings and drawings, lobby cards and original artwork for BERLIN: SYMPHONY OF A CITY, and an 86-minute long radio feature from 1987 about Ruttmann’s life and career.
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