Cinema's 'Sonbert' series brings alum Jon Gartenberg to campus

In conjunction with the Pentangle Film Program, Cornell Cinema welcomes archivist, curator and distributor Jon Gartenberg '73 back to Cornell Feb. 16 and 18 to present two of four Warren Sonbert programs.

As program director for the film preservation project of the Estate Project for Artists with AIDS, Gartenberg acted as a liaison between the Estate Project, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Film Archive and the Guggenheim Museum to create "a model of film preservation, distribution and exhibition," said Lisa Katzman of The New York Times. All of this work culminated in the 1999 Guggenheim exhibition, "Friendly Witness: The Worlds of Warren Sonbert," which was co-curated by Gartenberg, and Cornell Cinema is presenting four of the eight programs that were part of that exhibition. The series is co-sponsored with the Cornell Council for the Arts. For more information call 255-3522 or visit http://cinema.cornell.edu.

Sonbert (1948-1995) began making films in the 1960s as a student living in New York City. He absorbed the influences of his time -- beat lifestyle, the downtown art scene, rising gay visibility -- and quickly developed his own style. A world traveler and published opera critic, Sonbert took his camera with him everywhere, documenting lovers, meals, trains and public spaces. Once home in the United States, he would sort through the footage, looking for compelling combinations of shots. While he drew on several filmmakers (Sergei Eisenstein, Hitchcock and Douglas Sirk), his films can only be called his own. They combine elements of diary and argument, poetry and essay, the personal and political.

Cornell Cinema screened the first program, "Sonbert's Early Influences," Feb. 11, and Gartenberg will be on hand to introduce the second, "Sonbert's Queer Aesthetic," Sunday, Feb. 16, at 7:30 p.m. in Uris Auditorium. Gartenberg will be introduced by Associate Professor Don Fredericksen, who taught Gartenberg when he was an undergraduate. This screening is free.

Made when Sonbert was just 18, "Amphetamine" (1966) is a portrait of young men involved in the '60s counterculture. "Noblesse Oblige" (1981) is a complex montage experiment using street and travel footage, and also is patterned after Douglas Sirk's "Tarnished Angels." Like "Tarnished Angels," "Noblesse Oblige" contains themes of flying and falling and of the way media reportage shapes public perceptions of people and events" (Note: "Tarnished Angels" will screen as part of Cornell Cinema's Douglas Sirk series Feb. 17 and 18.) The "Queer Aesthetic" program concludes with "Whiplash" (1995/1997), which was completed posthumously by former student Jeff Scher.

Gartenberg also will present the third program, "Sonbert's Creative Interaction With Experimental Filmmakers," Tuesday, Feb. 18, at 7:30 p.m. in the Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts Film Forum. Tickets are $3. The program explores the connections with experimental filmmakers that knew and were influenced by Sonbert, including Nathaniel Dorsky, Jeff Scher and Abigail Child. In addition to films by these contemporary filmmakers, the program includes Sonbert's "Friendly Witness" (1989), which cuts together a variety of shots in a breathtaking montage.

The final program, "Sonbert and Hitchcock: Narrative from a Woman's Point of View," features Hitchcock's "Marnie" (1964), a tale of pathological thievery, romantic pursuit and repression. Starring Sean Connery and Tippi Hedren, it concluded Hitchcock's longstanding collaboration with composer Bernard Herrmann. In "A Woman's Touch" (1983), Sonbert explores similar themes of female enclosure and escape. "Sonbert and Hitchcock" will screen Sunday, Feb. 23, at 7:30 p.m. in Uris Auditorium. The screening is free.