April 18, 2024

Warren Sonbert's HOLIDAY Plays in Chicago In "Tone Glow Presents Pop Music as Prismatic Utopia"

April 18, 2024/ Jon Gartenberg

This Friday, April 19th, at 7pm, writer and programmer Joshua Minsoo Kim will screen Warren Sonbert’s FRIENDLY WITNESS in the second film program presented by his experimental music newsletter Tone Glow, titled Pop Music in Prismatic Utopia. The program will play at Chicago’s Sweet Void Cinema, a production company and microcinema located in Humboldt Park. GME is proud to represent the work and legacy of Sonbert, whose films — as evidenced by Kim’s program and a number of other screenings and retrospectives within recent years — have been experiencing a renaissance. FRIENDLY WITNESS, in particular, is a significant title in Sonbert’s oeuvre, as it demarcates his return to sound after many years of making silent montage films.

February 21, 2024

Warren Sonbert's Magnum Opus CARRIAGE TRADE Plays at the Centre Pompidou

February 21, 2024/ Jon Gartenberg

Today, Warren Sonbert’s film CARRIAGE TRADE — which the artist himself described as his “magnum opus” — will screen at the Centre Pompidou in Paris. Sonbert’s film plays in their exhibition A History of Cinema, which “draws an alternative narrative to the dominant cinematic canons and constitutes the founding moment of the Museum’s film collection.” CARRIAGE TRADE is currently distributed on 16mm by the Film-Makers’ Cooperative in New York, Canyon Cinema in San Francisco, and Light Cone in Paris. GME is the custodian of Sonbert’s legacy and proud to represent his significant body of work.

November 15, 2023

October 2023 Roundup Related to GME Titles, Artists, and Colleagues

November 15, 2023/ Jon Gartenberg

Happy November from Gartenberg Media Enterprises! As we head into the holiday season, we’re looking back at events, screenings, and celebrations from last month, in New York City and beyond, related to colleagues of GME as well as films and/or filmmakers in our collection. October’s events offered a unique selection of GME artists and friends, from Dominic Angerame and James Benning, to Jeff Preiss and Jerome Hiler, both of whom were collaborators of Warren Sonbert, whose body of work GME exclusively represents.

November 14, 2023

Light Cone Presents the Third Edition of "Scratch Collection" Film Festival

November 14, 2023/ Jon Gartenberg

Beginning on October 3rd of this year, Light Cone presented the third edition of their film festival Scratch Collection. GME has a long-standing relationship with Light Cone. While working as a film curator at the Museum of Modern Art, Jon Gartenberg sat in on screenings when the company was being formed in 1982 in Yann Beauvais and Miles McKane’s apartment. Later, Gartenberg acquired films of Beauvais’ for MoMA’s permanent collection. We are currently working with Emmanuel Lefrant, the director of Light Cone, to distribute the international touring program of films by Warren Sonbert.

October 26, 2023

Jeff Preiss Show at Columbia Runs Through October 30th

October 26, 2023/ Jon Gartenberg

Multimedia artist Jeff Preiss presented a video installation at Columbia University’s CCCP@10 book and film launch, which opened on October 5th of this month and runs through October 30th. GME President Jon Gartenberg and Fine Arts Curator David Deitch were in attendance at the October 5th launch. Preiss was a student of filmmaker Warren Sonbert, whose films GME exclusively represents.

October 13, 2023

GME Remembers Senator Dianne Feinstein This LGBTQ+ History Month

October 13, 2023/ Jon Gartenberg

GME remembers Senator Dianne Feinstein, who passed away on September 29th at the age of 90. Feinstein was celebrated for her advocacy, in general, of the queer community and LGBTQ+ rights. She was also captured on film by Warren Sonbert, an experimental filmmaker whose work included depictions of gay life on screen, as well as encoded in the subtext of a number of his films, and whose films are exclusively represented by Gartenberg Media Enterprises. Feinstein appears briefly in Sonbert’s 1981 film NOBLESSE OBLIGE, described by GME President Jon Gartenberg as “a masterfully edited work that features imagery Sonbert photographed of protests in San Francisco following the murders of Mayor George Moscone and Councilman Harvey Milk at the hands of White.”

October 10, 2023

September 2023 Roundup of Screenings Related to GME's DSL, DVD, & Blu-ray Offerings

October 10, 2023/ Jon Gartenberg

Happy Autumn from Gartenberg Media Enterprises! As we enter October, we’re looking back at a myriad of screenings from last month, in New York City and beyond, featuring films and/or filmmakers in our collection that we distribute to the North American university market. GME-associated artists were well-represented in September — from pioneering filmmakers like Ida Lupino, Jean-Luc Godard, Jose Val Del Omar, Maya Deren, and Man Ray, to contemporary artists like Karel Doing, Rose Lowder, and Lav Diaz. The work of Warren Sonbert, which is exclusively represented by GME, was also screened in various venues in September.

September 12, 2023

Summer 2023 Roundup of Screenings Related to GME's DSL, DVD, & Blu-ray Offerings

September 12, 2023/ Jon Gartenberg

With the end of summer fast approaching, GME returns from our seasonal hiatus to recap a slew of exciting screenings that happened between June and August, in New York City and beyond, featuring films and/or filmmakers in our collection that we distribute to the North American university market.

September 07, 2023

Warren Sonbert's AMPHETAMINE to Screen at WIELS with New Score

September 07, 2023/ Jon Gartenberg

Since the success of our Warren Sonbert retrospective at MoMA earlier this year, there has been renewed international interest in the artist’s extraordinary life and body of work, as evidenced by the forthcoming exhibition Billy Bultheel & James Richards: Workers in Song at WIELS in Brussels. Gartenberg Media Enterprises has granted permission for Richards to include Sonbert’s 1966 masterpiece AMPHETAMINE in this program — with a brand new score — which plays on Saturday, September 9th, and Sunday, September 10th, 2023.

April 10, 2023

MoMA Presents a Complete Retrospective of the Films of Warren Sonbert in 16mm May 11-19

April 10, 2023/ Jon Gartenberg

The Museum of Modern Art presents The Experimental Narratives of Warren Sonbert, organized by Ron Magliozzi, Curator, Department of Film, and Guest Curator GME President Jon Gartenberg. In a career that spanned the American experimental film world from New York City to San Francisco, filmmaker Warren Sonbert (1947–1995) was driven by the belief that “independent film…is the only avenue for those who want to take risks and satisfy their own self-imposed demands.”

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