GME News
Naughty Films at the Library: Avant-Garde Works in the NYPL's Reserve Film and Video Collection
/Thursday, September 19th, at 5:30pm at the Bruno Walter Auditorium in the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center. Curator Jon Gartenberg, in collaboration with NYPL Film Collection Specialist Elena Rossi-Snook, will present a program of avant-garde films from the Library's Reserve Film and Video Collection that deals with sex and censorship. After the screening, Gartenberg and Rossi-Snook will discuss the history and interpretation of these rarely-screened works. This event is free to attend and can be RSVPed here.
Read MoreAugust 2024 Roundup Related to GME Titles, Artists, and Colleagues
/As the summer season winds down, we reflect on screenings, events, and celebrations from August related to GME titles, artists, and colleagues. Notably, GME President Jon Gartenberg curated a program of politically-trenchant New York city symphony films that screened at Allied Productions Artist Space, while GME associate Matt McKinzie included two films by Warren Sonbert in a program of 1960s queer avant-garde shorts featuring Motown music at Spectacle Theater.
Read MoreTwo 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.
Read MoreGME Celebrates the Life of James Baldwin On the Centennial Celebration of His Birth
/On the occasion of the centennial celebration of writer and activist James Baldwin’s birth, GME pays tribute to his life, body of work, and lasting cultural impact with this photograph, taken by Raimondo Borea in 1979. An integral figure of both the civil rights and gay liberation movements of the 1960s and ‘70s, Baldwin — a Black, gay man — unabashedly tackled themes of racial inequality, masculinity, sexuality, and class in his writings, many of which are now heralded as significant 20th century American works.
Read MoreWatch Jon Gartenberg Introduce His Program of Politically-Trenchant New York City Symphony Films at Allied Productions Project Space
/On August 9th, 2024, at 7pm, GME President Jon Gartenberg presented a program of politically-trenchant New York city symphony films, spanning 1984 to 2006, at Allied Productions Project Space (368 East 8th Street). The program featured Steve Bilich’s NATIVE NEW YORKER (2005) and Jem Cohen’s NYC WEIGHTS AND MEASURES (2006) digitally, and Jack Waters’ BERLIN/NY (1984), Abigail Child’s B/SIDE (1996), and Jim Hubbard’s ELEGY IN THE STREETS (1989) on 16mm. To view Gartenberg’s introduction to the program — and to hear artist and co-founder of Allied Productions, Jack Waters, introduce Gartenberg — watch the video here.
Read MoreJuly 2024 Roundup Related to GME Titles, Artists, and Colleagues
/It may be the dog days of summer, but that hasn’t stopped GME from keeping busy. Today, we reflect on screenings, events, and celebrations from July related to our multifaceted projects. Notably, an archival gem relevant to MoMA’s month-long Powell and Pressburger retrospective was unearthed from GME President Jon Gartenberg’s papers, and a true crime film by James Benning (whose films we exclusively distribute to North American universities) screened at Anthology Film Archives.
Read MoreREMINDER: Jon Gartenberg's "Politically-Trenchant New York City Symphony Films (1984-2006)" screens TONIGHT at 8pm at Allied Productions Project Space
/REMINDER: Jon Gartenberg's program Politically-Trenchant New York City Symphony Films (1984-2006) screens TONIGHT at 8pm at Allied Productions Project Space (368 East 8th Street, Storefront West). Read on to learn about Gartenberg's commitment to excavating and exhibiting city symphony films, dating back to the early 1970s.
Read MorePowell, Pressburger, and Sonbert: How RUDE AWAKENING Was Influenced by The Archers
/On the occasion of Cinema Unbound: The Creative Worlds of Powell and Pressburger, a month-long retrospective at The Museum of Modern Art showcasing the work of directors Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, GME reflects on Warren Sonbert’s 1976 polyvalent montage film RUDE AWAKENING, which was directly inspired by the legendary British filmmaking duo. Powell and Pressburger — the creative partnership behind such classics as THE RED SHOES (1946) and BLACK NARCISSUS (1947) — produced and distributed their work under their company “The Archers,” which was denoted at the beginning of their films with a logo featuring an arrow landing in the center of a bullseye. Sonbert explicitly echoes Powell and Pressburger’s logo in RUDE AWAKENING by starting the film with a brief shot of a young man shooting a bow and arrow, prior to his montage footage commencing.
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