The Experimental Narratives of Warren Sonbert

May 11–19, 2023

MoMA

Warren Sonbert with his Bolex. Courtesy Jon Gartenberg
  • MoMA, Floor T2/T1 The Debra and Leon Black Family Film Center

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.” This retrospective of a seminal figure in experimental film encompasses Sonbert’s complete body of work from its beginning in 1966. Comprising seven programs, the series opens on the theme of queer identity, and goes on to focus on Sonbert’s early flirtation with Andy Warhol’s Factory scene, his travel diaries, the evolving styles, strategies, and poetics of his 16mm film work, and much more. Guest curator and Sonbert's archivist, Jon Gartenberg, remarks, “Sonbert’s film Carriage Trade was first shown in 1971 in the MoMA Cineprobe series, and it has been nearly two decades since the last retrospective of his films in New York City. This series can be considered a capstone to Warren Sonbert’s creative career.”

All screenings May 11-13 will be introduced by Jon Gartenberg, Guest Curator and Sonbert Archivist.

Organized by Ron Magliozzi, Curator, Department of Film, and guest curator and archivist Jon Gartenberg, with Carson Parish, Associate Producer, Department of Film.

Licensing

If you would like to reproduce an image of a work of art in MoMA’s collection, or an image of a MoMA publication or archival material (including installation views, checklists, and press releases), please contact Art Resource (publication in North America) or Scala Archives (publication in all other geographic locations).

MoMA licenses archival audio and select out of copyright film clips from our film collection. At this time, MoMA produced video cannot be licensed by MoMA/Scala. All requests to license archival audio or out of copyright film clips should be addressed to Scala Archives at [email protected]. Motion picture film stills cannot be licensed by MoMA/Scala. For access to motion picture film stills for research purposes, please contact the Film Study Center at [email protected]. For more information about film loans and our Circulating Film and Video Library, please visit https://www.moma.org/research/circulating-film.

If you would like to reproduce text from a MoMA publication, please email [email protected]. If you would like to publish text from MoMA’s archival materials, please fill out this permission form and send to [email protected].

Feedback

This record is a work in progress. If you have additional information or spotted an error, please send feedback to [email protected].