DVD Distribution – Fall 2015 Releases

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"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.

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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.

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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.  

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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.

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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.

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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.

 

William Susman – Feature Blog Post on "NY, NY: A Century of City Symphony Films," by Jon Gartenberg

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Thank you to acclaimed composer William Susman for his featured blog post on Jon Gartenberg's article "NY, NY: A Century of City Symphony Films," which was published in the Fall 2014 issue of Framework: The Journal of Cinema and Media. William Susman composed music for the film "Native New Yorker," which is part of Jon Gartenberg's traveling exhibition "A Panorama of American Experimental Narratives in the New Millennium."

GME DVD Distribution – Spring 2015 Recap

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"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.

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Watch for our upcoming Fall releases!

"Where Did Our Love Go? Films of Warren Sonbert" – Program at Media City in Toronto

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"Where Did Our Love Go? Films of Warren Sonbert" program at Media City in Toronto, Ontario that played last week. Program was curated by Jeremy Rossen and the films were introduced by Carla Harryman, one of the L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E poets with whom Sonbert interacted in his artistic practice.

 
 

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

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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

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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).

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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).

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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

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Additional Titles of Related Interest from GME

JONAS MEKAS: THE MAJOR WORKS

Jonas Mekas

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 (US, 1949-2002) 

HANS RICHTER: EARLY WORKS

Hans Richter

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(Germany, 1921-1929)

THE SEASHELL AND THE CLERGYMAN

Germaine Dulac

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(France, 1927)

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KURT KREN: STRUCTURAL FILMS

Kurt Kren

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(Austria, 1957-1995)

KURT KREN: ACTION FILMS


Kurt Kren

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(Austria, 1964-1967)

KURT KREN: WHICH WAY TO CA?

Kurt Kren

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(Austria, 1968-1996)

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

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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). 

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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.

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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.  

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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.

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Additional Soviet Films of Related Interest from GME


ENTUZIAZM

Dziga Vertov
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USSR, 1930

A SIXTH PART OF THE WORLD / THE ELEVENTH YEAR

Dziga Vertov
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USSR, 1926 / 1928


BY THE LAW

Lev Kulešov
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USSR, 1926


MISS MEND




Fedor Ozep
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USSR, 1927

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

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


LANDMARKS OF EARLY SOVIET FILM



Various Directors
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USSR, 1924–1930

Framework 56.1 – Warren Sonbert: Selected Writings. Now Available from Framework: The Journal of Cinema and Media

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Framework: The Journal of Cinema and Media has just released its latest issue devoted entirely to the writings of avant-garde artist Warren Sonbert. The journal features reproductions of Sonbert's original typed, handwritten and published documents. The issue is guest edited by Jon Gartenberg and is organized into sections related to Sonbert's interests in art, music, poetry, travel and film.

 
 

Below is an excerpt from Jon Gartenberg's introduction to the issue entitled A Delicate Balance: Warren Sonbert's Creative Legacy:

"For the very first time, a selection of writings by filmmaker Warren Sonbert is assembled together in this special edition of Framework. Although known primarily as an experimental filmmaker, Sonbert and his career extended deeply into other realms of the creative arts. He was an opera, music, and film critic; a kindred spirit to the Language poets; a screenplay author who adapted Strauss’s 1940–41 opera Capriccio; a collaborator on other filmmaker’s productions (Gerard Malanga’s In Search of the Miraculous [US, 1967] and Charles Henri Ford’s Johnny Minotaur [US, 1971]); an essayist on both the fine and performing arts; and a leading theoretician on cinematic montage. The objective of these collected writings, then, is to expand the narrow categorization of Sonbert as a now- deceased, marginalized experimental filmmaker into a broader reconsideration of his entire creative career. This endeavor should serve to reposition his legacy as a truly Renaissance thinker who articulated, in both profound and coherent fashion, how diverse forms of artistic expression can be so deeply connected to the human condition. 

Even for students of film history who are familiar with Sonbert’s cinematic output, the texts assembled in this publication are sure to be a revelation. “Film Syntax,” Sonbert’s most renowned essay, which so lucidly articulates his unique theory of montage, has been printed numerous times in various publications. Aside from this text, however, the other articles authored by Sonbert and reproduced herein are from more obscure publications or now defunct journals, including Shiny, Motion Picture, Tikkun, CinemaNews, Spiral, and the NY Film Bulletin. In addition, numerous unpublished notes, reflections, and essays that were authored by Sonbert—both handwritten and typed—have been gathered together to be published for the first time in this journal…

…We have organized Sonbert’s writings into the following broad classifications: art, travel, music, poetry, and film. These are not designed to be rigid categoriza- tions, but rather as points of departure to demonstrate Sonbert’s facility in his dialogue between all the art forms. Our inclusion of the travel category represents the central role Sonbert’s own journeys across time and space—both physical and creative—played in the development of the artist’s own practice of his craft.9 Only in considering Sonbert’s entire creative output as a coherent entity—filmed, written, and spoken, as well as his lived experiences through travel—can we truly appreciate his genius both as an artist and humanist."

 

GME is the exclusive representative of the estate of Warren Sonbert. For more information on the Warren Sonbert project see our programming page.

GME Announces Two New Titles From James Benning, Now Available on DVD for Institutional Sales

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Gartenberg Media Enterprises (GME) is pleased to announce the release of two new titles featuring four films by James Benning, NATURAL HISTORY / RUHR as well as DESERET / FOUR CORNERS, now available for institutional sales in North America. These two DVD editions are published by the Austrian Filmmuseum as part of the Edition Filmmuseum series.

 
 

“It is perhaps because James Benning’s work is so resistant to neat categorization that his films have rarely received the recognition they deserve.  His work fuses elements of American structuralism, the narrative avant-garde and experimental documentary.” 

– Danni Zuvela, “Talking about Seeing: A Conversation with James Benning”

JAMES BENNING: NATURAL HISTORY / RUHR

Since the late 1970s, James Benning's films have been a regular fixture at festivals in Germany and Austria, while frequent television broadcasts have helped expose his work to an even larger audience here than perhaps at home. This 2-disc set presents the products of this intercontinental relationship: RUHR, Benning's first foray into digital filmmaking, is a modern-day "city symphony" dedicated to Germany's industrial Ruhr district. His latest work, NATURAL HISTORY, is an audiovisual portrait commissioned by Vienna's Natural History Museum.
 
Reinhard Wulf's feature-length documentary JAMES BENNING: CIRCLING THE IMAGE, produced for German television, is a DVD extra that significantly illuminates Benning’s working method, that illuminates the manner in which his films are composed of carefully-timed, long takes and precisely selected, fixed camera positions.

JAMES BENNING: DESERET / FOUR CORNERS

“I could not have imagined that Benning’s fiftieth birthday [in 1992] would signal the beginning of the most remarkable era in his creative life…With the exception of Luis Buñuel and Alfred Hitchcock, I can think of no filmmakers who has blossomed so impressively so late in his career.”

– Scott MacDonald

In the 1990s, James Benning's films were primarily characterized by an ongoing investigation of the relationship between the image and the (spoken or written) word. This 2-disc set features the two key works representing the peak of this "text-image film" period. DESERET and FOUR CORNERS are rigorous attempts to address, engage and come to terms with the history and geography of the United States, as seen through the prism of one particular part of the country. The beauty of the shimmering landscapes is contrasted with darker exposés of American history.

In DESERET, Benning retells the history of America's Mormon State of Utah, by fusing more than 90 separate shots (comprising spectacular black & white and color landscape images), with a voiceover narrator quoting articles published in New York Times between 1852 and 1992 that reference the violent struggles between Mormons, Native Americans, and the Federal Government, as well as nuclear/biological weaponry and toxic waste sites. 
 
Benning's following film FOUR CORNERS is both a tribute to the famous region in the USA where four states converge (Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah) and a portrait of four very different artists (impressionist pioneer Claude Monet, African-American folk artist Moses Tolliver, fictional Native-American wall-painter ‘Yukawa’, and Abstract Expressionist Jasper Johns). The voiceover narration deals with natural and man-made forces that have rent destruction upon the Native American population in this region.

Additional Benning Titles of Related Interest from GME

CALIFORNIA TRILOGY (1999-2001)

CALIFORNIA TRILOGY (1999-2001)