GME DVD Distribution – Chaplin's Essanay Comedies and Sherlock Holmes Now Available on DVD / Blu-ray for Institutional Sales

GME continues to mine DVD editions from the silent American film era, especially the teens. We present here two publications representing work from the then-thriving Essanay Film Manufacturing Company – CHAPLIN’S ESSANAY FILMS and SHERLOCK HOLMES.  Both editions are published by Flicker Alley.

In late 1914, Charlie Chaplin was paid the then-unprecedented salary of $1,250 per week (with a bonus of $10,000) in exchange for signing a one-year contract with the Essanay Film Manufacturing Company. The resulting 14 films he created for Essanay find Chaplin continuing to add complexities and pathos into his celebrated Little Tramp character. With the release of DVD editions of CHAPLIN’S ESSANAY FILMS (together with CHAPLIN AT KEYSTONE and CHAPLIN’S MUTUAL COMEDIES) it is now feasible for the first time, from an academic perspective, to study in depth the first four years (1914 – 1917) of Chaplin’s rise to international fame.

Long considered lost until a complete dupe negative was identified in the vaults of the Cinémathèque Française last year, this Essanay production is a vital missing link in the history of Sherlock Holmes on screen. By the time SHERLOCK HOLMES was produced at Essanay Studios in 1916, the film's star, William Gillette, had been established as the world’s foremost interpreter of Holmes on stage—having played him approximately 1300 times since his 1899 debut.

Related Silent-Era Comedies & Detective Genre Titles of Interest

GME Presents Three International Collections of Avant-Garde Films, Now Available on DVD for Institutional Sales

For the fall academic season, GME offers surveys of experimental narratives and avant-garde shorts from three countries – the United States (MASTERWORKS OF AMERICAN AVANT-GARDE EXPERIMENTAL FILM 1920-1970), Great Britain (SHOOT SHOOT SHOOT: BRITISH AVANT-GARDE FILM OF THE 1960S & 1970S), and Germany (THE OBERHAUSEN MANIFESTO), now available for North American institutional sales.

MASTERWORKS OF AMERICAN AVANT-GARDE EXPERIMENTAL FILM 1920-1970 is a DVD / Blu-ray compilation (published by Flicker Alley), which provides a panoramic overview of the diversity of avant-garde filmmaking in the United States. A wide range of genres are represented – including city symphonies and diary films, as well as abstract studies and animation. Featuring 3 dozen films that date from 1920 to 1970, these avant-garde masterworks include works by artists Charles Sheeler & Paul Strand, Dudley Murphy & Fernand Léger, Robert Florey & Slavko Vorkapich, J.S. Watson, Jr. & Melville Webber, Mary Ellen Bute & Ted Nameth, Maya Deren & Alexander Hammid, Ian Hugo & Anaïs Nin, Ralph Steiner, Jay Leyda, Oskar Fischinger, Joseph Cornell, Rudy Burckhardt, Francis Lee, Helen Levitt, James Broughton, Kenneth Anger, Jim Davis, Hy Hirsh, Marie Menken, Francis Thompson, Hilary Harris, Bruce Baillie, Owen Land, Jonas Mekas, and Larry Jordan, and others.
 
The 1960s and 1970s were groundbreaking decades in which independent filmmakers challenged cinematic convention. In England, much of the innovation took place at the London Film-Makers’ Cooperative, an artist-led organization that incorporated a distribution agency, cinema space and film workshop. SHOOT SHOOT SHOOT takes its name from a telegram addressed to Jonas Mekas and the New York Coop, announcing the formation of the London Film-Maker's Cooperative in 1966. Within this unique laboratory, filmmakers were able to control every aspect of the creative process, and the physical production of a film – the printing and processing – became vital to its form and content. Many of the films made at the LFMC explored the physical nature of the film material itself. British filmmakers also made significant innovations in the field of ‘expanded cinema’, creating multi-screen projections, film environments and live performance pieces. SHOOT SHOOT SHOOT: BRITISH AVANT-GARDE FILM OF THE 1960S & 1970S (published by Re:Voir and Lux) contains key works by artists Guy Sherwin, Malcolm LeGrice, Peter Gidal, Stephen Dwoskin, William Raban, Chris Welsby, Liz Rhodes, and others.
 
In 1962, the proclamation of the Oberhausen Manfesto marked the beginning of the New German Film, paralleling a larger transformation occurring in French, Italian, Polish and Czech cinema of the time. Providing renewal during the period of decline of West German cinema, a younger generation of filmmakers – including Bernhard Dörries, Ferdinand Khitti, Peter Schamoni, Alexander Kluge & Edgar Reitz – presented an acute social conscience about postwar Germany, coupled with experiments in form. This 2-disc DVD set of THE OBERHAUSEN MANIFESTO presents 19 short films from 1958-1964 produced, directed, photographed or edited by one or more of the filmmakers who signed the manifesto.  

◊

Additional Experimental Surveys of Related Interest from GME

The Power of Pictures: Early Soviet Photography, Early Soviet Film: Now on View at The Jewish Museum

"The Power of Pictures: Early Soviet Photography, Early Soviet Film" now on view at The Jewish Museum featuring weekly screenings of Soviet films. These titles available in DVD editions through GME for North American institutional sales.

http://www.gartenbergmedia.com/news/2015/5/27/gme-announces-new-silent-soviet-films-now-available-on-dvd-for-institutional-sales

GME Announces Classic Silent German Films, Now Available on DVD for Institutional Sales

Expanding GME’s extensive focus on silent German cinema (especially of the 1920s), we are proud to release two seminal productions from this era – Walter Ruttmann’s BERLIN, DIE SINFONIE DER GROßSTADT and G.W. Pabst’s THE JOYLESS STREET. Both of these DVD editions are published by Edition Filmmuseum, Munich.

◊

Contemporary critics, as well as film historians, have always recognized G.W. Pabst’s THE JOYLESS STREET as a seminal moving image work produced during the Weimar Republic. Creatively, this film spans the border between German Expressionism and Neue Sachlichkeit (new realism). It is also the only silent film that brings together two of the movies’ greatest luminaries: Asta Nielsen, the European icon of the Teens, and Greta Garbo, who, at the end of the 1920s, would become the undisputed reigning star of the American cinema. 

It is also one of the most spectacular censorship cases of the era. The story is set in the inflationary period in Vienna in the years immediately after World War I, contrasting the decadent rich with the struggling poor, and replete with scenes of sexual orgies, bordellos, and murders. While the film made its director famous, the state institutions of control guaranteed that no one would ever see the film in its original form. The film was cut in every country in which it was shown for either political or moral reasons (or both). This 2-disc DVD edition represents the most recent restoration effort – albeit still with missing footage – to return the film to its original form. Also included in this DVD set are companion documentaries that contextualize this now-famous film and the process of its meticulous restoration.

◊

The poetic documentary BERLIN, DIE SINFONIE DER GROßSTADT by Walther Ruttmann is perhaps the most famous of the “City Symphony” films that flourished worldwide in the 1920s (that also included MANHATTA from the United States and RIEN QUE LES HEURES in France).  About his own production, German filmmaker Walther Ruttmann wrote that:

            "Once I decided on the City as the main subject of a film, the sole
            eligible candidate for casting in this role was Berlin. Berlin is
            young, full of unlimited possibilities, the most rewarding motif
            imaginable for film seen as ‘the art of motion’. During this shooting,
            however, this modern Hydra of stone proved as capricious as any
            human diva.  It took longer than a year to capture the many facets
            of her character in thousands of takes and miniscule snippets.  With
            no studio, no standing sets, and under imponderable circumstances
            I had to lie in wait with my tiny detective camera, always ready to
            pounce, submerged in the life of the city, under constant cover lest
            my subjects become aware of my activities and, knowing they were
            being ‘filmed’, start ‘acting.'"

MELODIE DER WELT was the first German sound feature film. The Hamburg-America Line sponsored this production, Ruttmann shaped the film into a travelogue, in which he juxtaposes and contrasts iconic buildings, modes of transportation, and cultural traditions from countries all around the world. The film was pioneering in its exploration of the artistic possibilities in joining the motion picture with recorded sound – i.e., an orchestral score, intermittent dialogue, and synchronized sound effects. 

This 2-disc DVD set BERLIN, DIE SINFONIE DER GROßSTADT & MELODIE DER WELT also combines for the first time all surviving short film works by Walther Ruttmann from 1920-1931 (comprising his abstract films OPUS I-IV, sponsored commercials, a mood piece entitled IN DER NACHT, and a radio play, WEEKEND). All are presented in newly restored versions, often with original scores. 

◊

Additional Silent German Films of Related Interest from GME

DVD Distribution – Fall 2015 Releases

"The superb dedication of such entities as the Criterion Collection, Milestone Films, and Gartenberg Media Enterprises, to name key players, are making possible access to a wealth of cinematic history, ephemera, and value-added materials." 

         – B. Ruby Rich, Film Quarterly Winter 2013

With the fall academic season now underway, Gartenberg Media Enterprises (GME) is pleased to present a new slate of DVD titles for distribution to the North American academic community. These publications, selected from film archives and boutique presses worldwide, represent an entire century of cinematic history, ranging from silent classics to contemporary experimental narrative films.

◊

Expanding GME’s extensive focus on silent German cinema (especially of the 1920’s), GME features two seminal productions, Walter Ruttmann’s BERLIN, DIE SINFONIE DER GROßSTADT and G.W. Pabst’s THE JOYLESS STREET. Both of these DVD editions are published by Edition Filmmuseum, Munich.

The symphonic documentary BERLIN, DIE SINFONIE DER GROßSTADT is one of the most famous City Symphony films; the travelogue MELODIE DER WELT became the first German sound feature film. The 2-disc DVD set of BERLIN, DIE SINFONIE DER GROßSTADT & MELODIE DER WELT combines for the first time all surviving works by Walther Ruttmann from 1920-1931 in newly restored and reconstructed versions, often with original scores.
 
Contemporary film critics, as well as film historians have always recognized THE JOYLESS STREET as a seminal film on the border between German Expressionism and Neue Sachlichkeit (new realism). It is also the only silent film that brings together two of the movies’ greatest luminaries: Asta Nielsen, the European icon of the the Teens, and Greta Garbo, who at the end of the 1920s would become the undisputed reigning star of the American cinema. It is also one of the most spectacular censorship cases of the era. While the film made its director famous, the state institutions of control guaranteed that no one would ever see the film in its original form. This DVD edition represents the most recent restoration effort.

◊

For the fall academic season, GME offers surveys of experimental narratives and avant-garde shorts from three countries – the United States, Great Britain, and Germany. 

MASTERWORKS OF AMERICAN AVANT-GARDE EXPERIMENTAL FILM 1920-1970 is a DVD compilation (published by Flicker Alley), which provides a panoramic overview of the diversity of avant-garde filmmaking in the United States. A wide range of genres are represented – including city symphonies and diary films, as well as abstract studies and animation. Featuring 3 dozen films that date from 1920 to 1970, these avant-garde masterworks include works by artists Charles Sheeler & Paul Strand, Dudley Murphy & Fernand Léger, Robert Florey & Slavko Vorkapich, J.S. Watson, Jr. & Melville Webber, Mary Ellen Bute & Ted Nameth, Maya Deren & Alexander Hammid, Ian Hugo & Anaïs Nin, Ralph Steiner, Jay Leyda, Oskar Fischinger, Joseph Cornell, Rudy Burckhardt, Francis Lee, Helen Levitt, James Broughton, Kenneth Anger, Jim Davis, Hy Hirsh, Marie Menken, Francis Thompson, Hilary Harris, Bruce Baillie, Owen Land, Jonas Mekas, and Larry Jordan, and others.
 
The 1960s and 1970s were groundbreaking decades in which independent filmmakers challenged cinematic convention. In England, much of the innovation took place at the London Film-Makers’ Cooperative, an artist-led organization that incorporated a distribution agency, cinema space and film workshop. SHOOT SHOOT SHOOT takes its name from a telegram addressed to Jonas Mekas and the New York Coop, announcing the formation of the London Film-Maker's Cooperative in 1966. Within this unique laboratory, filmmakers were able to control every aspect of the creative process, and the physical production of a film – the printing and processing – became vital to its form and content. Many of the films made at the LFMC explored the physical nature of the film material, using production processes that shaped the form and content of the final works. British filmmakers also made significant innovations in the field of ‘expanded cinema’, creating multi-screen projections, film environments and live performance pieces. SHOOT, SHOOT, SHOOT: BRITISH AVANT-GARDE FILM OF THE 1960S & 1970S (published by Re:Voir and Lux) contains key works by artists Guy Sherwin, Malcolm LeGrice, Peter Gidal, Stephen Dwoskin, William Raban, Chris Welsby, Liz Rhodes, and others.
 
In 1962, the proclamation of the Oberhausen Manfesto marked the beginning of the New German Film, paralleling a larger transformation occurring in French, Italian, Polish and Czech filmmaking of the time. Providing renewal during the period of decline of West German cinema, a younger generation of filmmakers – including Bernhard Dörries, Ferdinand Khitti, Peter Schamoni, Alexander Kluge & Edgar Reitz – presented an acute social conscience about postwar Germany, coupled with experiments in form. This 2-disc DVD set of THE OBERHAUSEN MANIFESTO presents 19 short films from 1958-1964 produced, directed, photographed or edited by one or more of the filmmakers who signed the manifesto.  

 ◊ 

GME continues to mine DVD editions from the silent American film era, especially the teens. We present here two publications representing work from the then-thriving Essanay Film Manufacturing Company – CHAPLIN’S ESSANAY COMEDIES and SHERLOCK HOLMES. Both editions are published by Flicker Alley.

In late 1914, Charlie Chaplin was paid the then-unprecedented salary of $1,250 per week (with a bonus of $10,000) in exchange for signing a one-year contract with the Essanay Film Manufacturing Company. The resulting 14 films he created for Essanay find Chaplin continuing to add complexities and pathos into his celebrated Little Tramp character. With the release of DVD editions of CHAPLIN’S ESSANAY COMEDIES (together with CHAPLIN AT KEYSTONE and CHAPLIN’S MUTUAL COMEDIES) it is now feasible for the first time, from an academic perspective, to study in depth the first four years (1914 – 1917) of Chaplin’s rise to international fame.
 
Long considered lost until a complete dupe negative was identified in the vaults of the Cinémathèque Française last year, this William Gillette film is a vital missing link in the history of Sherlock Holmes on screen. By the time SHERLOCK HOLMES was produced at Essanay Studios in 1916, Gillette had been established as the world’s foremost interpreter of Holmes on stage—having played him approximately 1300 times since his 1899 debut.

◊

Peter Emmanuel Goldman is one of the unheralded pioneers of the American independent film movement of the 1960’s, whose work stands in favorable comparison to his contemporaries Shirley Clarke and John Cassavettes. GME is proud to present two of Goldman's seminal works, ECHOES OF SILENCE (1964) and WHEEL OF ASHES (1968), now released for the first time in DVD editions by Re:Voir. ECHOES OF SILENCE captures the wandering existence of youthful protagonists in Greenwich Village; WHEEL OF ASHES portrays the young generation around the period of the 1968 student revolts in Paris, and features Pierre Clementi in the title role.

◊

In order to keep current with recent developments in independent narrative cinema, GME also introduces separate DVD editions of works by two contemporary international filmmakers, Boris Lehman (Belgium) and Nicholas Pareda (Mexico).
 
In STORY OF MY HAIR: ON THE SHORTNESS OF LIFE (also published by Re:Voir), filmmaker Boris Lehman examines his own head of hair as a journey in space and time, delving into meditations on science, history, and geography. NICOLÁS PEREDA: 6 FILMS presents a DVD edition (published by INTERIOR XIII) of award-winning filmmaker Nicholas Perado, whose works have been exhibited in major fiilm festivals worldwide, including Cannes, Berlin, Venice, Locarno, Rotterdam, Toronto, and San Sebastian. With an observational camera and a minimum of dialogue, Pereda provides a close-up view of Mexican working class society, especially concerning the travails of youth, the bonds of family structures, and tension between the social classes. Most of the films star Gabino Rodríguez, who functions in the narratives as Pereda’s alter ego. More formally, via fractured and elliptical narratives, Pereda exploits the dividing line in cinema between fiction and documentary.

Peter von Bagh Tribute at 42nd Telluride Film Festival

Having wrapped up last week, the 42nd Telluride Film Festival dedicated their entire festival this year to the late Peter von Bagh. Peter von Bagh's films HELSINKI, FOREVER, SPLINTERS and REMEMBRANCE are all available on DVD from GME for North American Institutional sales.

GME DVD Distribution – Spring 2015 Recap

"The superb dedication of such entities as the Criterion Collection, Milestone Films, and Gartenberg Media Enterprises, to name key players, are making possible access to a wealth of cinematic history, ephemera, and value-added materials." 

– B. Ruby Rich, Film Quarterly Winter 2013

With the upcoming fall academic season rapidly approaching, Gartenberg Media Enterprises is pleased once again to provide a recap of our slate of DVD and Blu-ray publications that we've offered during the Spring semester. These publications, selected from film archives and boutique presses worldwide, represent an entire century of cinematic history, ranging from the silent French serial THE HOUSE OF MYSTERY (1919) to the latest digital production of experimental artist James Benning (NATURAL HISTORY, 2014).

Serial films, or ciné romans were well-established in France before World War I, where they are most closely identified with writer-director Louis Feuillade (see JUDEX, also distributed by GME).  We now present (also from Flicker Alley) the silent serial entitled THE HOUSE OF MYSTERY (1923), produced by Albatros Studios, a company founded by émigré filmmakers in Paris following the Russian revolution (see also FRENCH MASTERWORKS: RUSSIAN ÉMIGRÉS in Paris (1923-1929). The serial THE HOUSE OF MYSTERY, directed by Alexandre Volkoff, and starring the versatile actor Ivan Mosjoukine, is based on a novel by Jules Mary centered on the theme of the miscarriage of justice; the film is replete with stylish elegance and narrative imagination. In the vein of Russian serials, GME has previous released MISS MEND (1927), an adventure serial in three parts directed by Fedor Ozep (assisted by Boris Barnet).

Parallel to the foundation of the Albatros Studios, the 1920s saw the apotheosis of Soviet filmmaking.  GME currently feature several new DVD publications under the label Edition Filmmuseum; they are produced by the film archive in Vienna, which is noted for its significant holdings of Soviet-era films.  This archive is especially noted for its meticulous research and presentation of DVD editions of Soviet filmmakers’ works that often allow comparisons of different versions of the same film. From the EFM/Vienna, GME has previously released Lev Kuleshov’s BY THE LAW and Dziga Vertov’s early sound masterwork, ENTUZIAZM.

These releases comprise works by 3 of the great Soviet filmmakers: Sergei Eisenstein (BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN / OCTOBER) Dziga Vertov (THREE SONGS OF LENIN), and Mikael Kalatozov (SALT OF SVANETIA / NAIL IN THE BOOT).  Kalazatov is better known for his Soviet films of the 1950’s and 1960’s – THE CRANES ARE FLYING (1959), LETTER NEVER SENT (1959), and I AM CUBA (1964); this DVD edition presents two of his early, pioneering silent films – SALT OF SVANETIA an austere depiction of peasant life in the inhospitable terrain of the Caucusas mountains and NAIL IN THE BOOT, a biting parable of negligence in wartime. Vertov’s THREE SONGS OF LENIN is the filmmaker’s poem to the founder of the Soviet Union, and this DVD edition including both the silent and sound versions of the film). Eisenstein’s masterpieces POTEMKIN is presented in painstakingly restored German-language versions (both silent and sound), and OCTOBER highlights the original release together with fragments from the version distributed in Germany; all editions feature the accompanying scores by Austrian-born composer Edmund Meisel. For additional Soviet titles distributed by GME, see LANDMARKS OF EARLY SOVIET FILM.

Austrian native Martina Kudláček has established a unique filmmaking legacy by creating discursive documentaries on experimental cinema personalities that have included Maya Deren (IN THE MIRROR OF MAYA DEREN [2002]) and Alexander Hammid (AIMLESS WALK [1997]). GME is pleased to present the release of DVD editions of Kudláček’s two most recent films, NOTES ON MARIE MENKEN (2006) and FRAGMENTS OF KUBELKA (2012). In a discursive yet deliberately paced style, Kudláček creates indelible portraits of the creative and impactful filmmakers Marie Menken (1909-1970) and Peter Kubelka, who is still active making films on celluloid film stock.

NOTES ON MARIE MENKEN brings into focus the underground film icon Marie Menken, best known for her role as a protagonist in Andy Warhol's CHELSEA GIRLS (1966). Beginning with the excavation of Marie's rusty film cans, old photographs, and papers housed in a storage locker, Kudláček brings Menken vividly back to life through clips from her films and conversations with her creative compatriots, especially fellow artist Gerard Malanga.  

Several years in the making, Martina Kudláček’s 4 hour essay film FRAGMENTS OF KUBELKA runs four times the length of artist Peter Kubelka’s entire cinematic output. She patiently follows his daily rituals and creative life (from cooking to filmmaking), and thereby provides a unique window into Kubelka’s world view in which he patiently digests “the manifold things of the universe” (Tom Gunning).  

James Benning’s distinctive work has primarily focused on the depiction of landscapes through the passage of time, layered with offscreen sound and on occasion with superimposed text. From 1971 until 2007, James Benning shot these films uniquely in 16mm; this body of work has been heretofore unavailable in digital format. Recently, under a longstanding partnership with the Vienna Filmmuseum, his films are being made available in high quality DVD editions. GME has previously released 3 of these publications – AMERICAN DREAMS (LOST & FOUND) / LANDSCAPE SUICIDE, CALIFORNIA TRILOGY, and CASTING A GLANCE / RR. We now offer the latest DVD edition of Benning’s work, entitled DESERET / FOUR CORNERS, that continues his investigation into landscapes of the American West, and between the visual image and the spoken or written word. In 2007, Benning abandoned celluloid filmmaking – primarily due to increasing problems with laboratory work and film projection. and turned, in partnership with German production company, digital work (motivated by problems in laboratories and projection). In this vein, GME presents the DVD edition NATURAL HISTORY / RUHR, comprising Benning’s very first digital production, RUHR, a modern day city symphony set in the industrial region of Germany, together with NATURAL HISTORY, a portrait commissioned by Vienna’s Natural History Museum.

Peter von Bagh, an award-winning filmmaker, writer, critic, and programmer, who recently passed away at age 71, was one of the foremost authorities on international cinema . His extensive and unique body of work include some 50 films and 30 books. In homage to this brilliant figure of international cinema, GME is honored to represent the distribution of a package of his films. THE FINNISH SUITE includes three documentary feature films that make up an important part of von Bagh's works in the 21st century. HELSINKI, FOREVER (2008) is a portrait and city symphony of the White City of North; SPLINTERS – A CENTURY OF AN ARTISTIC FAMILY (2011) explores the story of Finnish art through a versatile family of artists, without forgetting wider links to European cultural currents; and REMEMBRANCE – A SMALL MOVIE ABOUT OULU IN THE 1950'S (2013) is the director's most intimate film in which he returns to his youth and his hometown of Oulu. The city is located in Northern Finland, and yet it could be anywhere in war-torn but forward-gazing Europe. In this trilogy of films, Peter von Bagh creates both an extraordinarily personal – yet at the same time universal – meditation about cinematic time, space and memory.

◊

Watch for our upcoming Fall releases!

GME Announces Trilogy of Peter von Bagh Films, Now Available on DVD for Institutional Sales

Peter von Bagh was an award-winning filmmaker, writer, critic, professor, archive director and programmer. His recent and untimely death at age 71 represents the tragic loss of one of the foremost worldwide authorities on international cinema. His unique body of work comprises a vast array of films, television productions, and radio programs, as well as innumerable books and magazine articles. Over the past decades, he served as artistic director of the Midnight Sun Film Festival in Sodankylä, Finland, as well as Il Cinema Ritrovato in Bologna, Italy (where this past June tribute was paid to von Bagh in a program selection of his moving image works, entitled, “Peter Forever.”

In homage to this towering figure of cinema culture (yet humblest of human beings), GME is honored to represent the distribution of a package of his films. This boxed DVD set, entitled THE FINNISH SUITE (published by Illume Oy), comprises three poetic films that are key components of von Bagh's oeuvre in the 21st century. Peter von Bagh’s films were primarily concerned with the history of everyday Finns. To further humanize these stories, von Bagh often inserted his own autobiography into the narratives. 

HELSINKI, FOREVER (2008) is a portrait and city symphony of the white city of northern Finland; SPLINTERS – A CENTURY OF AN ARTISTIC FAMILY (2011) explores the story of Finnish art through a versatile family of artists, without forgetting wider links to European cultural currents; and REMEMBRANCE – A SMALL MOVIE ABOUT OULU IN THE 1950’S (2013) is the director's most intimate film in which he returns to his youth and his hometown of Oulu. The city is located in northern Finland, and yet it could be anywhere in war-torn but forward-gazing Europe.

All throughout this trilogy, Peter von Bagh demonstrates both a masterful and deft command of found footage material, that is overlaid with his own voiceover narration. The filmmaker seduces the spectator into a visually arresting and engrossing self-contained world of images and sounds. He creates a cinematic reality that encapsulates the human condition in seemingly more vivid and poignant fashion than even the human experience of everyday life can afford us. He constructs both an extraordinarily personal -- yet at the same time universal –- meditation about time, space and memory.

GME Releases Cinematic Portraits of Marie Menken and Peter Kubelka by Martina Kudláček

GME is proud to announce the release of cinematic portraits of Marie Menken and Peter Kubelka, now available for institutional sales in North America. Both films were created by noted documentary filmmaker Martina Kudláček.

Marie Menken and Peter Kubelka are two towering figures in the history of avant-garde cinema. Both fiercely independent individuals, they have each created singular and distinct bodies of work. Menken’s films, shot between 1945 and 1967, are noted for her poetic studies of both nature and urban settings, all shot with her handheld Bolex camera and edited in a rapid montage style. Kubleka’s moving image works are constructed in a precisely-calibrated fashion, aligned more with structuralist film concerns. Beginning with his first film made in 1955 (MOSAIK IM VERTRAUEN (MOSAIC IN CONFIDENCE)], Kubelka continues today to produce work in celluloid film formats.

Documentary filmmaker Martina Kudláček has developed a unique cinematic legacy by creating discursive, biographical documentaries on experimental cinema personalities. Over the course of her career, she has developed portraits of Alexander Hammid (AIMLESS WALK, 1997). Maya Deren (IN THE MIRROR OF MAYA DEREN, 2002), Marie Menken (NOTES ON MARIE MENKEN, 2006), and Peter Kubelka (FRAGMENTS OF KUBELKA, 2012). Her two most recent films are now available for study in high quality digital editions published by the Austrian Filmmuseum in conjunction with the Edition Filmmuseum series (FRAGMENTS OF KUBELKA) and through the INDEX DVD series from Sixpack Films, Vienna (NOTES ON MARIE MENKEN).

◊

NOTES ON MARIE MENKEN

“Kudláček's fascinating, filmic diary NOTES ON MARIE MENKEN follows the reminiscences of her friends and colleagues, among them Gerard Malanga (poet, photographer, and filmmaker) and Jonas Mekas (fellow Lithuanian, artist, and public champion of the avant-garde). Various interviewees recount how the public, marital theatrics of Menken and her husband, filmmaker Willard Maas, became the inspiration for the perennial battling older couple in Edward Albee's WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF? 

Beginning with the excavation of Marie's rusty film cans, old photographs, and papers housed in a storage locker, Kudláček brings Menken vividly back to life. She contrasts her own crisp black-and-white digital cinematography with lush color excerpts from Menken's 16 mm celluloid films. In the film's most compelling sequence, fellow artist Gerard Malanga winds through a rare clip of Marie Menken and Andy Warhol on a New York City rooftop. They seemed to be engaged in an artistic duel, each shooting with their respective 16 mm Bolex cameras. The moviola, through which the film runs, sheds light on an intricately choreographed dance that shines through flickering images of deteriorating film."

- Jon Gartenberg on NOTES ON MARIE MENKEN, Tribeca Film Festival 2006

The bonus feature on this DVD edition comprises four of the poetic, experimental films that Menken created between 1945 and 1966, and which are referenced in Kudláček’s documentary: VISUAL VARIATIONS ON NOGUCHI (1945), GLIMPSE OF THE GARDEN (1957), ARABESQUE FOR KENNETH ANGER (1958-61), and LIGHTS (1964-1966).

◊

FRAGMENTS OF KUBELKA

Several years in the making, Kudláček's latest film production runs four times the length of artist Peter Kubelka’s entire cinematic output.

"Kubelka's films play and work with the flow of time, compressing the continuous now and presence. His films digest the manifold things of the universe: the elemental energies of light and dark; movement and stillness; the life of animals and patterns of landscape; gesture and dance. With another mode of time Kudláček shared with us Kubelka's patient pace of conversation and listening, exploring things that mean so much to the artist: memories, souvenirs, his past and childhood, his home. All these things entered into Kubelka's films, but here they are brought to light and made part of his legacy as teacher and as artist. In perhaps the most sensual sequence, Kudláček shows Kubelka as he prepares, cooks and then eats Wiener Schnitzel. Following rather than compressing the flow of time, we watch as ingredients embrace each other: egg, flour, meat and butter. We see the browning and transformation of these things exposed to fire, listen to their ecstatic metamorphosis. As Kubelka says, food is a metaphor that can be eaten, a meal is a work of art that can be consumed and digested. To digest, Kubelka tells us, is to embrace the universe. FRAGMENTS OF KUBELKA allows us to savor, swallow and digest these lessons."

– Tom Gunning

◊

Additional Titles of Related Interest from GME

JONAS MEKAS: THE MAJOR WORKS

Jonas Mekas

◊
 (US, 1949-2002) 

HANS RICHTER: EARLY WORKS

Hans Richter

◊
(Germany, 1921-1929)

THE SEASHELL AND THE CLERGYMAN

Germaine Dulac

◊
(France, 1927)

◊

KURT KREN: STRUCTURAL FILMS

Kurt Kren

◊
(Austria, 1957-1995)

KURT KREN: ACTION FILMS

Kurt Kren

◊
(Austria, 1964-1967)

KURT KREN: WHICH WAY TO CA?

Kurt Kren

◊
(Austria, 1968-1996)

GME Announces New Releases of Classic Soviet Films, Now Available on DVD for Institutional Sales

Gartenberg Media Enterprises (GME) is pleased to announce the release of classic Soviet silent films by Sergei Eisenstein (BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN / OCTOBER), Michail Kalatozov (SALT OF SVANETIA / NAIL IN THE BOOT), and Dziga Vertov (THREE SONGS OF LENIN), now available for institutional sales in North America.

Parallel to the foundation of the Albatros Studios in France by Russian émigré filmmakers (see FRENCH MASTERWORKS: RUSSIAN ÉMIGRÉS IN PARIS (1923-1929)), the 1920s saw the apotheosis of Soviet filmmaking in the USSR. GME currently features several new DVD publications under the label Edition Filmmuseum; they are produced by the film archive in Vienna, which is noted for its significant holdings of Soviet-era films. This archive has achieved renown for its meticulous research and presentation of DVD editions of Soviet filmmakers’ works; these presentations often feature comparisons of different versions of the same film. Our current releases comprise works by 3 of the great Soviet filmmakers of the era: Sergei Eisenstein (BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN / OCTOBER) Dziga Vertov (THREE SONGS OF LENIN), and Michail Kalatozov (SALT OF SVANETIA / NAIL IN THE BOOT). 

◊

MICHAIL KALATOZOV: SALT OF SVANETIA / NAIL IN THE BOOT

Kalatozov is perhaps better known for his Soviet films of the 1950’s and 1960’s – THE CRANES ARE FLYING (1959), LETTER NEVER SENT (1959), and I AM CUBA (1964). In contrast, this DVD edition presents two of his early, pioneering silent films – SALT OF SVANETIA an austere depiction of peasant life in the inhospitable terrain of the Caucusas mountains and NAIL IN THE BOOT, a biting parable of negligence in wartime. This publication won the coveted 2014 Il Cinema Ritrovato award for Best DVD.

◊

DZIGA VERTOV: THREE SONGS OF LENIN

Vertov’s THREE SONGS OF LENIN, his “film poem” to the founder of the Soviet Union, is, alongside MAN WITH A MOVIE CAMERA, the most universally acclaimed and enduringly popular of all Dziga Vertov’s films. (GME has previously released a pair of Dziga Vertov’s silent film productions, A SIXTH PART OF THE WORLD / THE ELEVENTH YEAR, as well as his early sound experimental masterwork, ENTUZIAZM). This current DVD edition includes both the silent and sound versions of THREE SONGS OF LENIN, and the DVD extras include 2 editions of Vertov’s Kinopravda newsreel series, together with a documentary about Vertov by Austrian Film Museum co-founder Peter Konlechner.  

◊

SERGEI EISENSTEIN: BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN / OCTOBER

Eisenstein’s masterpiece POTEMKIN is presented in painstakingly restored German-language versions (both silent and sound), while the accompanying DVD edition of OCTOBER highlights the original release version of the film, together with fragments from the version distributed in German. They all feature the accompanying scores by Austrian-born composer Edmund Meisel, and the extensive CD Rom extra highlights the creative partnership between the filmmaker and this composer.

◊

Additional Soviet Films of Related Interest from GME

ENTUZIAZM

Dziga Vertov
◊
USSR, 1930

A SIXTH PART OF THE WORLD / THE ELEVENTH YEAR

Dziga Vertov
◊
USSR, 1926 / 1928

BY THE LAW

Lev Kulešov
◊
USSR, 1926

---

MISS MEND

Fedor Ozep
◊
USSR, 1927

FRENCH MASTERWORKS: RUSSIAN ÉMIGRÉS IN PARIS (1923-1929)

Ivan Mosjoukine, Alexandre Volkoff, Marcel L'Herbier, Jacques Feyder
◊
France, 1923–1929

LANDMARKS OF EARLY SOVIET FILM

Various Directors
◊
USSR, 1924–1930