December 2025 Roundup
/Today we recap screenings, events, and celebrations from December (and the end of November) related to GME titles, artists, and colleagues. Notably, GME announced the digital distribution of Jim Hubbard’s seminal film ELEGY IN THE STREETS (1989) on the occasion of World AIDS Day, and offered new programming in the Adrienne Mancia Streaming Room. Additionally, Deborah Willis launched the publication of the 25th anniversary edition of her book REFLECTIONS IN BLACK at NYU, for which GME licensed three photographs by Hugh Bell. Furthermore, four Warren Sonbert films screened in South Korea, while the films of Vivian Ostrovsky were celebrated with a career-spanning retrospective in Berlin, accompanied by a brochure featuring an original essay by GME President Jon Gartenberg.
November 20th — KU Cinematheque & Lothringen
On November 20th, GME associate James Pearson presented new digital restorations of Warren Sonbert's films HALL OF MIRRORS (1966), AMPHETAMINE (1966), CARRIAGE TRADE (1973), and FRIENDLY WITNESS (1989) at the KU Cinematheque in collaboration with Lothringen, a Seoul-based film collective. The screening was well-attended and followed by a 30-minute discussion and Q&A.
November 24th — GME
November 24th would have been the 100th birthday of political commentator William F. Buckley, Jr. In recognition of Buckley's centennial, GME spotlights photographs taken of Buckley on the set of his television show Firing Line by freelance photographer Raimondo Borea. Borea (whose photographic oeuvre is represented by GME on an exclusive basis) was granted extensive behind-the-scenes access to the set of Firing Line, as well as The Today Show and The Tonight Show. One of Borea’s photographs of Buckley was later used on the cover of NATIONAL REVIEW (which was founded by Buckley) shortly following his passing.
Click here to view Borea’s photographs of Buckley.
December 1st — GME
December 1st was World AIDS Day, an international day dedicated to raising awareness of the AIDS pandemic and honoring those who we have lost to HIV/AIDS. On this day of consciousness-raising, mourning, and remembrance, GME was honored to welcome Jim Hubbard’s ELEGY IN THE STREETS (1989) on DSL into our library of films currently available for international institutional acquisition.
December 1st — Amazon Prime
In December, Lisa D’Apolito’s SHARI & LAMB CHOP became available to stream on Amazon Prime. SHARI & LAMB CHOP is a documentary about trailblazing children’s entertainer Shari Lewis and her anthropomorphic sock puppet Lamb Chop. For this documentary, GME licensed Raimondo Borea’s photograph of Lewis and Lamb Chop appearing on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson in the mid-1960s.
SHARI & LAMB CHOP had its world premiere at the 2023 DOC NYC Festival and was later picked up for theatrical and VOD distribution by Kino Lorber. The film was acclaimed by Larry Fried of POV Magazine as “a long overdue tribute to Lewis, a trailblazing female multi-hyphenate whose unwavering work ethic and bright talent made her a five-time Emmy winner.”
For inquires related to the Borea photography collection, please email info@gartenbergmedia.com.
December 4th — GME
Following a brief hiatus in November, the team at GME was pleased to offer new programming in the Adrienne Mancia Streaming Room beginnning on December 4th. Just in time for the holiday season, we brought you the little-seen 1955 made-for-television remake of the Christmas classic MIRACLE ON 34TH STREET (1947).
December 4th — Austrian Film Museum
On December 4th at 6pm, filmmaker, visual artist and writer Lisl Ponger presented the new publication SEMIOTIC GHOSTS at the Austrian Film Museum in Vienna, in conversation with the editors Elisabeth Streit and Dietmar Schwärzler. The book offers a compendium of essays in English and German that explore Ponger’s oeuvre. GME distributes the three-film collection LISL PONGER: TRAVELLING LIGHT, published as a DVD by INDEX Edition. The collection features Ponger’s films PASSAGES, DEJA VU, and PHANTOM FOREIGN VIENNA.
December 8th — New York University
On Monday, December 8th, at 6:30pm, the NYU John Brademas Center hosted a special installment of the series Changemakers in Focus, featuring historian, curator, and artist Deborah Willis in conversation with Washington Post reporter Maegan Vazquez. This event commemorated the 25th anniversary of Willis’ book REFLECTIONS IN BLACK: A HISTORY OF BLACK PHOTOGRAPHERS 1840 TO THE PRESENT, which has been revised, expanded, and retitled REFLECTIONS IN BLACK: A REFRAMING.
Willis’ book provides the first comprehensive history of Black photographers. For this publication, GME licensed three photographs — of jazz artists Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan, and Thelonious Monk — taken by photographer Hugh Bell. Bell’s images were also integrated into the promotional campaign for this book launch. GME represents Bell’s photographic oeuvre on an exclusive basis.
For inquires related to the Bell collection, please contact info@gartenbergmedia.com.
December 10th — Centre Pompidou
On December 10th at 6pm, the Centre Pompidou presented the films LA IMITACION DE ANGEL by Adolfo Arrieta, VISA DE CENSURE NO X by Pierre Clémenti, and ECLIPSE OF THE SUN VIRGIN by George Kuchar, as part of their series Une histoire du cinéma, which "draws an alternative narrative to the dominant cinematic canons." GME distributes Arrieta's LA IMITACION DE ANGEL in the three-film collection THE ANGEL TRILOGY, which is published by Re:Voir Video and available both as a DVD set and downloadable DSL files. GME also distributes Clémenti's VISA DE CENSURE NO X as a DSL file, along with seven other key avant-garde works by the artist. Additionally, GME distributes the Kuchar Brothers' underground classic SINS OF THE FLESHAPOIDS on a DVD published by Re:Voir Video.
December 16th — Zeughauskino & Akademie der Künste
Between November 17th and December 16th, the career of filmmaker Vivian Ostrovsky was commemorated with the retrospective But Elsewhere Is Always Better in Berlin. The Zeughauskino presented a film series curated by Ostrovsky, while all of Ostrovsky's films were shown in programs at the Akademie der Künste in Hanseatenweg on November 29th and 30th. (GME distributes Ostrovsky’s films on DVD and as Digital Site Licenses in the collection PLUNGE, in conjunction with Re:Voir Video).
A brochure accompanied this retrospective and featured an original essay by GME President Jon Gartenberg, which analyzed Ostrovsky’s filmmaking methodology alongside that of Warren Sonbert. Gartenberg’s essay was included among texts by Bert Rebhandl, Esther Buss, Lukas Förster, Friederike Horstmann, Ulrike Ottinger, Fernanda Pessoa, and Sissi Ta.
Click here to read Gartenberg’s essay in full.
December 18th — GME
This fall, GME was pleased to offer an expansive slate of new titles as Digital Site Licenses (DSLs), available for acquisition by academic and cultural institutions in various territories. On December 18th, we revisited those titles. Click here to view them.
December 21st — GME
December 21st is the shortest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere and has therefore been declared Short Film Day in Germany. December 28th is also recognized as Short Film Day in the United States, in honor of the Lumière brothers’ first public screening of moving pictures (all of which were short films) at the Grand Café in Paris on December 28th, 1895. GME thus declared December 21st—28th “Short Film Week.”
From December 21st through the 28th, we celebrated Short Film Week with Warren Sonbert’s shortest film — 1966’s HALL OF MIRRORS — which was made available to view for free in the Adrienne Mancia Streaming Room.
To purchase this title for institutional use, please contact sales@gartenbergmedia.com.
