Walther Ruttmann's Silent Classic BERLIN: SYMPHONY OF A CITY Opens MoMA's Silent Movie Week

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Walther Ruttmann's Silent Classic BERLIN: SYMPHONY OF A CITY Opens MoMA's Silent Movie Week

From 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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Jim McBride's BREATHLESS Screens at the Roxy Cinema Tomorrow; McBride's DAVID HOLZMAN'S DIARY Screens This Month in the Adrienne Mancia Streaming Room

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Jim McBride's BREATHLESS Screens at the Roxy Cinema Tomorrow; McBride's DAVID HOLZMAN'S DIARY Screens This Month in the Adrienne Mancia Streaming Room

Tomorrow, July 5th, at 5pm, Jim McBride’s controversial 1983 remake of Jean-Luc Godard’s 1960 French New Wave classic BREATHLESS screens at the Roxy Cinema in Tribeca. McBride co-wrote the screenplay for BREATHLESS with L.M. Kit Carson, who starred in McBride’s feature directorial debut, the groundbreaking 1967 “mockumentary” DAVID HOLZMAN’S DIARY. Adrienne Mancia, a longtime friend and colleague of GME President Jon Gartenberg, championed McBride’s debut during her time as a curator in the The Museum of Modern Art’s film department, wherein she redefined the field of film programming by showcasing new and innovative works by emerging artists.

DAVID HOLZMAN’S DIARY streams this month in the Adrienne Mancia Streaming Room. Click here to view McBride’s film and read an excerpt from Gartenberg’s program note about DAVID HOLZMAN’S DIARY, written for the occasion of the film’s inclusion in MoMA’s 2023 Adrienne Mancia tribute.

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June 2025 Roundup Related to GME Titles, Artists, and Colleagues

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June 2025 Roundup Related to GME Titles, Artists, and Colleagues

Today we recap screenings, events, and celebrations from June related to GME titles, artists, and colleagues. Notably, GME publicly presented the World Premiere digital restorations of a selection of the early films of Warren Sonbert at Metrograph on June 8th. GME also attended the 2025 Visual AIDS Vanguard Awards, which honored two of our longtime friends and colleaugues: Jim Hubbard and James Wentzy. Furthermore, GME screened Allan King’s groundbreaking documentary WARRENDALE this month in the Adrienne Mancia Streaming Room.

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Now Playing in the Adrienne Mancia Streaming Room: DAVID HOLZMAN'S DIARY

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Now Playing in the Adrienne Mancia Streaming Room: DAVID HOLZMAN'S DIARY

Jim McBride’s DAVID HOLZMAN’S DIARY (1967), which streams this month in the Adrienne Mancia Streaming Room, is widely regarded as one of the first “mockumentaries,” and was once described by eminent film critic Richard Brody as an “ingenious, scruffy metafiction… an exotic fruit grown in New York from the seed of the French New Wave.” Filmed on a shoestring budget over the course of several days, it is a work of experimental fiction presented as an autobiographical documentary about aspiring filmmaker David Holzman (played by L.M. Kit Carson), who decides to make a filmed diary of his life on the Upper West Side.

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Now Playing in the Adrienne Mancia Streaming Room: Allan King's WARRENDALE

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Now Playing in the Adrienne Mancia Streaming Room: Allan King's WARRENDALE

Allan King made his feature film directorial debut with the 1967 documentary WARRENDALE, which screens this month in the Adrienne Mancia Streaming Room. In WARRENDALE, King visits a home for young people living with mental illness located in the suburbs of Toronto. As described by Criterion: “Situated inside the facility like a fly on the wall, we witness the full spectrum of emotions displayed by twelve fascinating children and the caregivers trying to nurture and guide them.” 

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Now Playing in the Adrienne Mancia Streaming Room: A King Double Bill

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Now Playing in the Adrienne Mancia Streaming Room: A King Double Bill

During her time as a curator in MoMA's Department of Film, Adrienne Mancia was a major proponent of unearthing important and often overlooked treasures from film history. As noted by her close friend and colleague Jon Gartenberg, “[Adrienne] celebrated American directors of a bygone era who had worked within the Hollywood studio system.” King Vidor's THE JACK-KNIFE MAN (1920) and Henry King's THE SEVENTH DAY (1922) are among the early Hollywood films Mancia championed. Both films, which were featured in MoMA's 2023 In Memoriam tribute to Mancia, stream this month in the Adrienne Mancia Streaming Room.

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NYPL Presents the City Symphony Program IN THE STREETS on April 17th, curated by Jon Gartenberg with Elena Rossi-Snook

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NYPL Presents the City Symphony Program IN THE STREETS on April 17th, curated by Jon Gartenberg with Elena Rossi-Snook

On Thursday, April 17th, at 5:30pm, the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts will present the program In The Streets in the Bruno Walter Auditorium. Curated by GME President Jon Gartenberg with Elena Rossi-Snook, NYPL’s Reserve Film and Video Collection Specialist. this screening will explore the spirit and structure of the “city symphony” film.

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March 2025 Roundup Related to GME Titles, Artists, and Colleagues

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March 2025 Roundup Related to GME Titles, Artists, and Colleagues

Today we recap screenings, events, and celebrations from March related to GME titles, artists, and colleagues. Notably, GME celebrated Women’s History Month by spotlighting works by women filmmakers that we distribute on DSL, DVD, and Blu-Ray. In the Adrienne Mancia Streaming Room, GME streamed Hiroshi Teshigahara's WOMAN IN THE DUNES (which Mancia wrote about at length in Film Comment) and featured a number of rare archival treasures from Mancia's papers. Additionally, MIX NYC publicly shared the filmed Q&A session from their festival's closing night program in November 2024, which featured remarks from GME President Jon Gartenberg, commenting on GME associate Matt McKinzie's film and the other films in the program. At the end of the month, Gartenberg contributed program notes for Abigail Child's screening of her film THE SUBURBAN TRILOGY at the Film-Makers' Cooperative.

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February 2025 Roundup Related to GME Titles, Artists, and Colleagues

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February 2025 Roundup Related to GME Titles, Artists, and Colleagues

Today we recap screenings, events, and celebrations from February, in New York City and beyond, related to GME titles, artists, and colleagues. Notably, Jack Mitchell’s photographic oeuvre was highlighted on the occasion of Black History Month, in recognition of exhibitions and performances at the Whitney and Lincoln Center, and upon the passing of legendary singer-songwriter Roberta Flack. Furthermore, Francis Ford Coppola’s feature directorial debut streamed in the Adrienne Mancia Streaming Room beginning on February 12th.

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Now Playing in the Adrienne Mancia Streaming Room: Francis Ford Coppola's DEMENTIA 13

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Now Playing in the Adrienne Mancia Streaming Room: Francis Ford Coppola's DEMENTIA 13

As a programmer at The Museum of Modern Art, Adrienne Mancia was an advocate of progressive “New Hollywood” filmmakers such as Francis Ford Coppola who, in the late 1960s and early ‘70s, subverted the moral and aesthetic traditions (and limitations) of the studio system by producing thematically and stylistically challenging work influenced by European cinema, the American avant-garde, and the countercultural ethos of the era at large. This month in the Adrienne Mancia Streaming Room, GME presents Coppola’s debut feature film DEMENTIA 13 (1963), which screened in MoMA’s November—December 2023 tribute to Mancia.

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