Movies: Warren Sonbert

  • 1971
    Johnny Minotaur

    Johnny Minotaur (1971)

    Johnny Minotaur

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    Johnny Minotaur is a lyrical explosion of taboos: incest, intergenerational desire, pansexuality and autoeroticism are a few of the issues Charles Henri Ford grapples with through mythopoeic, sensual imagery, recitations of his diaries and a philosop...

    Johnny Minotaur
  • 1967
    Truth Serum

    Truth Serum (1967)

    Truth Serum

    01967HD

    Truth Serum is a rare work by Sonbert made in New York City in 1967. The completed film (that is missing its original soundtrack) provides a unique glimpse into his life and friends at the time including fellow filmmakers Nathaniel Dorsky and Jerome ...

    Truth Serum
  • 1970
    The Stone Age

    The Stone Age (1970)

    The Stone Age

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    "The question is, it is either going to be a stoned age or a new Stone Age" - Louis Brigante...

    The Stone Age
  • 1972
    Carriage Trade

    Carriage Trade (1972)

    Carriage Trade

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    Carriage Trade was an evolving work-in-progress, and this 61-minute version is the definitive form in which Sonbert realized it, preserved intact from the camera original. With Carriage Trade, Sonbert began to challenge the theories espoused by the g...

    Carriage Trade
  • 1989
    Friendly Witness

    Friendly Witness (1989)

    Friendly Witness

    01989HD

    In Friendly Witness, Sonbert returned, after 20 years, to sound. In the first section of the film, he deftly edits a swirling montage of images - suggestive of loves gained and love lost--to the tunes of four rock songs. Fred Camper said, "At times t...

    Friendly Witness
  • 1976
    Rude Awakening

    Rude Awakening (1976)

    Rude Awakening

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    Sonbert's vivid color palette enhances the ritualistic nature of each action observed. Set against this lush panorama, Sonbert subverts the expectation of classic cinematography with a liberal sprinkling of avant-garde techniques. The incorporation o...

    Rude Awakening
  • 1966
    Amphetamine

    Amphetamine (1966)

    Amphetamine

    01966HD

    An ode to queer sex and drugs, boys shooting up and kissing. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 1998....

    Amphetamine
  • 1968
    Holiday

    Holiday (1968)

    Holiday

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    Experimental short subject preserved by the Academy Film Archive, in partnership with Estate Project for Artists with AIDS, in 1998....

    Holiday
  • 1966
    Hall of Mirrors

    Hall of Mirrors (1966)

    Hall of Mirrors

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    This film is an outgrowth of one of Sonbert's film classes at NYU, in which he was given outtakes from a Hollywood film photographed by Hal Mohr to re-edit into a narrative sequence. Adding to this found footage, Sonbert filmed Warhol's superstars Re...

    Hall of Mirrors
  • 1992
    Short Fuse

    Short Fuse (1992)

    Short Fuse

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    Sonbert was also a noted opera critic, and he frequently theorized about the relationship of film to other art forms, in particular, music. He analogized the notes, chords, and tone clusters of music to the progression of shots in film. The shot was ...

    Short Fuse
  • 1968
    The Bad and the Beautiful

    The Bad and the Beautiful (1968)

    The Bad and the Beautiful

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    One of the most profound themes coursing throughout Sonbert's work is that of love between couples in all its pitfalls and perfect moments. To express this theme between his protagonists onscreen as well as in the relationship between his ever-roving...

    The Bad and the Beautiful
  • 1978
    Divided Loyalties

    Divided Loyalties (1978)

    Divided Loyalties

    01978HD

    Warren Sonbert described Divided Loyalties as a film 'about art vs. industry and their various crossovers.' According to film critic Amy Taubin, "There is a clear analogy between the filmmaker and the dancers, acrobats and skilled workers who make up...

    Divided Loyalties
  • 1988
    Honor and Obey

    Honor and Obey (1988)

    Honor and Obey

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    In Warren Sonbert's Honor and Obey soldiers march in formation, a tiger stalks through the snow, religious processions wind through the streets, and palm trees wave in a tropical breeze. As brightly colored images of authority figures blend into scen...

    Honor and Obey
  • 1981
    Noblesse Oblige

    Noblesse Oblige (1981)

    Noblesse Oblige

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    The style is relatively unchanged, but the images--press conferences, news events, disasters--convey his vision of the world in a new, direct, political fashion. Featuring startling footage of the City Hall riots after Councilman Dan White received a...

    Noblesse Oblige
  • 1997
    Whiplash

    Whiplash (1997)

    Whiplash

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    During the years preceeding his death, Sonbert channeled his energy into making Whiplash. His vision and motor skills impaired, he gave his companion, Ascension Serrano, detailed instructions about the assembly of specific shots and the music to be u...

    Whiplash
  • 1966
    Where Did Our Love Go

    Where Did Our Love Go (1966)

    Where Did Our Love Go

    01966HD

    Warhol Factory days... serendipity visits, Janis and Castelli and Bellevue glances... Malanga at work ... glances at Le Mépris and North by Northwest... girl rock groups and a disco opening... a romp through the Modern. My second film. Preserved by ...

    Where Did Our Love Go
  • 1967
    In Search of the Miraculous

    In Search of the Miraculous (1967)

    In Search of the Miraculous

    01967HD

    In the Search of the Miraculous is a multi-levelled story realized with extremely personal techniques and with the kind of atmosphere of Poetry and Introspection, only a poet could create. It is, in fact, the story of a poet searching himself through...

    In Search of the Miraculous
  • 1967
    Ted and Jessica

    Ted and Jessica (1967)

    Ted and Jessica

    01967HD

    A snippet of a seemingly lost film, added here solely for stunting purposes....

    Ted and Jessica
  • 1986
    The Cup and the Lip

    The Cup and the Lip (1986)

    The Cup and the Lip

    01986HD

    The Cup and the Lip is a complex and challenging picture that will stimulate adventurous filmmakers for years to come. Although its imagery is too dense, varied and fast-moving to be thoroughly parsed after one viewing, the film appears to be a regre...

    The Cup and the Lip
  • 1969
    The Tuxedo Theatre

    The Tuxedo Theatre (1969)

    The Tuxedo Theatre

    01969HD

    About this film, Sonbert wrote in the London Filmmakers' Co-op catalogue: "New York again and some Morocco. First sketches of varieties of people. East west city country, rich poor, old young. Many levels. Less movement but more editing and geometric...

    The Tuxedo Theatre