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 MoreOn Thursday, October 30th, GME President Jon Gartenberg, GME Fine Arts Curator David Deitch, and GME Associate Matt McKinzie attended a live musical performance by celebrated singer Marilyn Maye at 54 Below. Maye is a Grammy-nominated performer who was discovered by Steve Allen in 1963. She went on to appear on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson a record 76 times, the most of any other musical guest. She also recorded a number of successful albums for RCA in the 1960s, and at the age of 97, continues to perform live. Throughout her show at 54 Below, Maye shared clips from her appearances on The Tonight Show as well as stills from the show itself. One of the stills is an on-set photo taken by Raimondo Borea. Borea, a freelance photographer, was afforded exclusive behind-the-scenes access to The Tonight Show, where he captured candid portraits of the show’s hosts and celebrity guests. The Borea photo featured in Maye’s show is from the mid-1960s and captures host Johnny Carson and guest Steve Allen sharing a laugh. GME represents Borea’s photographic oeuvre and is committed to resurrecting the career of this important yet overlooked artist. GME recently partnered with Getty Images to make Borea’s photographs of The Today Show and The Tonight Show available for licensing. Please contact info@gartenbergmedia.com for all inquiries related to the Borea photography collection.
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 MoreGartenberg 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.
Gartenberg Media Enterprises mourns the loss of legendary filmmaker Ken Jacobs, who passed away on October 5th, 2025, at the age of 92. A founding member of The Film-Makers' Cooperative, Millennium Film Workshop, and the Film Department at Binghamton University, Jacobs was a titan of the New York and global avant-garde filmmaking community for over 60 years.
Read MoreToday we recap screenings, events, and celebrations from September related to GME titles, artists, and colleagues. At the beginning of the month, GME announced our shift to focusing on the distribution of moving image works available as Digital Site Licenses (DSLs). As part of this transition, we announced our distribution of Steve Bilich’s experimental short documentary NATIVE NEW YORKER as well as the early films of Warren Sonbert and films directed by Pierre Clémenti.
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.
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