Sonbert Comes Home to the Film-Makers' Cooperative: The Early Films (1966—1973) Now Available for Rental

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Sonbert Comes Home to the Film-Makers' Cooperative: The Early Films (1966—1973) Now Available for Rental

Gartenberg Media Enterprises previously announced the sale of new 2K digital restorations of Warren Sonbert’s early films for acquisition by universities, museums, and other cultural institutions worldwide.

Sonbert’s early films — spanning 1966’s AMPHETAMINE through to 1973’s CARRIAGE TRADE — are also now available for rental on digital formats for the first time from The Film-Makers’ Cooperative, where the artist originally distributed his films on 16mm beginning in the 1960s. The return of these films to this historic organization will therefore be a “homecoming” for Sonbert. Stay tuned for the launch of this touring package, premiering at The Film-Makers' Cooperative on November 15th.

These seven early films can be rented from the Film-Makers’ Cooperative individually. Five of those films (AMPHETAMINE, WHERE DID OUR LOVE GO?, HALL OF MIRRORS, THE BAD AND THE BEAUTIFUL, and CARRIAGE TRADE) can also be rented together as a touring package.

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TONIGHT: Queer Avant-Garde Films Screen at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, co-curated by Jon Gartenberg and Elena Rossi-Snook

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TONIGHT: Queer Avant-Garde Films Screen at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, co-curated by Jon Gartenberg and Elena Rossi-Snook

Tonight, 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.

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FRAMEWORK, Volume 64, No. 2: The Early Films of Warren Sonbert (1966-1973)

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FRAMEWORK, Volume 64, No. 2: The Early Films of Warren Sonbert (1966-1973)

Gartenberg Media Enterprises is proud to announce the publication of Volume 64, No. 2, of Framework: The Journal of Cinema and Media, which is devoted to writings about the early films of Warren Sonbert. Jon Gartenberg was named the custodian of Sonbert’s legacy, and since Sonbert's passing, GME has worked on an extensive project to preserve, distribute, and curate career retrospectives of his work on an international basis. Furthermore, GME has facilitated the publication of original documents from his paper archive, which is now housed at Harvard University. This journal is Framework’s second issue devoted to Sonbert’s life and career. Volume 56, No. 1, published in Spring 2015, focused on Sonbert’s own writings. Gartenberg served as Guest Editor on both Framework issues.

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The Sonbert Renaissance

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The Sonbert Renaissance

In recent years, the work of filmmaker Warren Sonbert has experienced a renaissance among film critics, scholars, cinephiles, and the general public. Sonbert’s films have proven especially popular with younger audiences around the globe who are discovering his work for the first time.

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Jack Mitchell: Artists

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Jack Mitchell: Artists

Photographer Jack Mitchell would have turned 100 years old in 2025. In recognition of the centennial of this creative and historically significant artist, GME now offers a series of readymade exhibitions that showcase Mitchell’s extensive photographic oeuvre.

Over the course of his half-century professional career, Mitchell documented a vast array of artists in the fields of music, dance, theatre, literature, and the fine arts. No exhibition encapsulates this history better than Jack Mitchell: Artists, which features over 50 silver gelatin and color photographs of noteworthy American visual, musical, and literary talents. This show first opened on May 16, 2021, at the Adtran, Jurenko & Thurber Galleries at the Huntsville Museum of Art, and is currently available to galleries, museums, and other cultural institutions both in the U.S. and abroad.

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Two Warren Sonbert Films Screen in "The Motown Sound and the Queer Underground," curated by GME associate Matt McKinzie

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Two Warren Sonbert Films Screen in "The Motown Sound and the Queer Underground," curated by GME associate Matt McKinzie

On Friday, August 30th, at 7:30pm, Warren Sonbert’s first two films AMPHETAMINE (1966) and WHERE DID OUR LOVE GO? (1966) will screen at Spectacle Theater (124 S. 3rd St.) in the program The Motown Sound and the Queer Underground, curated by GME associate Matt McKinzie as part of the series Sonic Visions: Experiments in Cinema and Music, presented by the Film-Makers’ Cooperative. Sonbert’s Estate has previously named GME as the custodian of his legacy, and since the artist’s untimely passing, GME has worked on an extensive project to preserve, distribute, and curate career retrospectives of his films on an international basis, as well as publish original documents from the paper archive of his writings.

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GME Distributes Work by Filmmakers Featured in the Film-Makers' Cooperative and Film at Lincoln Center's Series "Seeing the City: Avant-Garde Visions of New York"

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GME Distributes Work by Filmmakers Featured in the Film-Makers' Cooperative and Film at Lincoln Center's Series "Seeing the City: Avant-Garde Visions of New York"

From May 3rd to 7th, Film at Lincoln Center and the Film-Makers’ Cooperative mounted a 10-program series of films and video art titled Seeing the City: Avant-Garde Visions of New York from the Film-Makers’ Cooperative Collection and Beyond. Today is the final day of this series, which highlights works from within and outside of the FMC’s archive that chronicle New York City from a diverse array of perspectives. GME is proud to distribute, to the North American university market, titles by a number of filmmakers whose films appear in this series, such as Stan Brakhage, Holly Fisher, Marie Menken, Ian Hugo, Francis Thompson, and Rudy Burckhardt. GME distributes, as well, many other international city symphony films — not only of New York, but also San Francisco, Los Angeles, Berlin, Ostend, Granada, Lourdes, Cassis, Brussels, and elsewhere. To view a complete list of our city symphony titles, click here. To read Jon Gartenberg’s article about New York city symphony films, click here.

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December 2023 Roundup Related to GME Titles, Artists, and Colleagues

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December 2023 Roundup Related to GME Titles, Artists, and Colleagues

Happy New Year from Gartenberg Media Enterprises! As we ring in 2024, we’re reflecting on screenings, events, and celebrations from last month, in New York City and beyond, related to colleagues of GME, as well as films and/or filmmakers in our collection that we distribute to the North American university market. Notably, a mid-’60s sci-fi flick by Jean-Luc Godard returned to the big screen, while the Film-Makers’ Cooperative hosted a two-night benefit screening of an infamous Andy Warhol film — which GME President Jon Gartenberg was instrumental in rediscovering, in the mid-1980s, while working at The Museum of Modern Art.

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November 2023 Roundup Related to GME Titles, Artists, and Colleagues

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November 2023 Roundup Related to GME Titles, Artists, and Colleagues

Happy Holidays from Gartenberg Media Enterprises! Now that it’s already December, we’re looking back at events, screenings, and celebrations from last month, in New York City and beyond, related to colleagues of GME, as well as films and/or filmmakers in our collection that we distribute to the North American university market. November’s events offered a unique selection of work by GME artists and associates, from Alexandra Dean and Nancy Buirski, to a number of fascinating titles featured in MoMA’s ongoing Adrienne Mancia tribute.

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Jon Gartenberg Recounts His Connection to the Films of Andy Warhol for the 60th Anniversary Benefit Screening of SLEEP

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Jon Gartenberg Recounts His Connection to the Films of Andy Warhol for the 60th Anniversary Benefit Screening of SLEEP

On December 2nd, 2023, GME President Jon Gartenberg provided background and context regarding the recovery of Andy Warhol’s film oeuvre at the 60th anniversary benefit screening of Warhol’s SLEEP, hosted by the Film-Makers’ Cooperative at The Bunker at 222 Bowery. Gartenberg was instrumental in the excavation and preservation of Warhol’s films in the 1980s.

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