GME News
GME notes with sadness the recent passing of Warhol superstar Brigid Berlin. A fixture at the Factory for decades, Berlin appeared in several of his films and photos and was also an important participant in Warhol’s life, to which, per the artist, she contributed enormously. Berlin is perhaps best remembered for her shocking role in Warhol’s best known early film, CHELSEA GIRLS (1966).
Read MoreGartenberg Media Enterprises (GME) is honored to memorialize the passing last week of entertainment giant Hugh Downs by presenting a rare visual essay, “A Day in the Night of Hugh Downs,” photographed by Raimondo Borea. Hugh Downs was a regular television presence from the 1940’s through the 1990’s. He was an announcer for Tonight Starring Jack Paar from 1957 to 1962, co-host of the NBC News program Today from 1962 to 1971, host of the Concentration game show from 1958 to 1969, and anchor of the ABC News magazine 20/20 from 1978 to 1999.
Read MoreThe recent landmark Supreme Court decision guaranteeing employment protection on a Federal level for the LGBTQ community underscores the contemporary relevance of a selection of photographs of African American gay and lesbians (pictured above and below), which were taken decades ago by photographer Hugh Bell (1927-2012).
Read MoreOver the past several years, Gartenberg Media Enterprises (GME) has worked diligently to further the legacy of talented African-American artist Hugh Bell, whose photography career began in the early 1950s. We are pleased to announce that the Katherine E. Nash Gallery at the Department of Art, University of Minnesota, will feature Hugh Bell’s work in their forthcoming exhibition projected for September of 2021, entitled “ A Picture Gallery of the Soul,” which will celebrate the work of African American photographers. The gallery, situated on the campus of the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, also promotes art as a means to address the issues of social justice, especially relevant because of the murder of George Floyd in that city.
Read MoreGartenberg Media wishes the best for our university colleagues in these trying times. Due to the sudden advent of remote teaching beginning in March, we decided to suspend our announcement of our spring semester DVD releases until the fall of 2020. Nevertheless we are fully prepared to fulfill prospective orders to the academic community from our entire catalog of more than 200 titles. For a complete list of our DVD/Blu-ray titles and pricing, please click here. There are live links from each title to its individual web page description. We thought this listing would be helpful for university librarians who need to expend their budgets before the end of this academic year in May, as well as for professors anticipating teaching material for their fall curricula.
Read MoreAs March draws to a close, GME feels it is important to pay tribute to Women Filmmakers from our catalogue of digital moving image publications. The role of women filmmakers has been generally overlooked in the writing of film histories. In order to rectify these omissions in the field of academic film studies, GME is proud to distribute significant moving image works created by female artists in DVD format.
Read MoreDuring this semester, Gartenberg Media Enterprises has offered an extensive slate of new DVD and Blu-ray publications for distribution to the North American academic community. These digital editions were selected from film archives and boutique publishers worldwide, and represent the entire breadth and depth of moving image history. They encompassed trick films by George Méliès, dating from the 1890s, through to 21st Century experimental filmmakers working in both France and the United States, including Jacques Perconte, Jeff Scher, and Robert Todd.
Read MoreFRAGMENT OF AN EMPIRE (1929) was Ermler’s last silent feature and the last of four productively contentious collaborations with the method actor Fiodor Nikitin. He plays a factory worker, Filmonov, who is traumatized by shellshock while serving as a soldier in the Czar’s army during the First World War. He loses his memory and identity for ten years — precisely the period in which the Bolsheviks won their revolution over the Tsarists and began the construction of the new Soviet Union. Ermler’s intention was to show the renewal of the country, the accomplishments of the Soviet system, and the liberation and rebirth of the people through the eyes of Filmanov.
Read MoreMack Sennett spent his formative years at Biograph, emerging from the ranks of the Griffith stock company to become a regular comic lead and, soon, the primary director of Biograph’s comedy unit. These short, “split-reel” comedies, all from Sennett’s first year as a director, find him developing the broad, frenetic slapstick style that he would bring to his own company, Keystone, in 1912.
Read More“With CARRIAGE TRADE (1973 version, 61 min, 16mm), Sonbert began to challenge the theories espoused by the great Soviet filmmakers of the 1920s; he particularly disliked the ‘knee-jerk’ reaction produced by Eisensteinian montage. In both lectures and writings about his own style of editing, Sonbert described CARRIAGE TRADE as ‘a jig-saw puzzle of postcards to produce varied displaced effects.’ This approach, according to Sonbert, ultimately affords the viewer multi-faceted readings of the connections between shots through the spectator’s assimilation of ‘the changing relations of the movement of objects, the gestures of figures, familiar worldwide icons, rituals and reactions, rhythm, spacing, and density of images.” –Jon Gartenberg
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