New Yorker Films was an independent film distribution company founded Daniel Talbot in 1965. It started as an extension of his Manhattan movie house, the New Yorker Theatre, after he discovered he was unable to obtain certain foreign titles for exhibition.
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Background
Through New Yorker Films, Talbot aimed to import unavailable foreign films himself. Early acquisitions such as Bernardo Bertolucci's Before the Revolution, Jean-Luc Godard's Les Carabiniers, and Ousmane Sembene's Black Girl helped establish New Yorker Films as a presenter of the world's innovative, artistically significant, and politically engaged films.[1]
Titles introduced
New Yorker Films has helped gain an audience for controversial and challenging works avoided by other distributors in the United States. Some of these include Jacques Rivette's Celine and Julie Go Boating; Chantal Akerman's Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles; Claude Lanzmann's documentary Shoah; Emir Kusturica's Underground; the Merchant-Ivory docudrama The Courtesans of Bombay; and Werner Herzog's Aguirre, the Wrath of God.[1]
Trends introduced
New Yorker Films considers itself the primary force in introducing the United States to New German Cinema, the politically-embattled Latin American cinema, and the postcolonial African cinema. It discovered the early breakthrough works of such now-celebrated filmmakers as Agnieszka Holland, Juzo Itami, Errol Morris, Wayne Wang, and Zhang Yimou. More recently they have explored new frontiers in Iranian, Asian, and Eastern European cinema.[1]
Non-theatrical market
New Yorker Films also serviced the non-theatrical market, catering to the specialized needs of film society and classroom venues not generally served by larger film providers. The New Yorker Films library includes titles from leading independent and foreign film distributors such as Sony Pictures Classics, First Look, and Lions Gate Entertainment.[1]
End of the company
In 2002, New Yorker Films was acquired by Madstone Films. On February 23, 2009, New Yorker Films posted a notice on its web site announcing it had gone out of business. An E-mail from a company executive that was published on the IndieWire news site confirmed the company's demise was the result of its parent company defaulting on a loan.[2]
References
- ^ a b c d About_us
- ^ Eugene Hernandez (February 23, 2009). "End of the Road for New Yorker Films, Legendary Distributor of “Difficult” Cinema". IndieWire. http://www.indiewire.com/article/2009/02/23/end_of_the_road_for_new_yorker_films_legendary_distributor_of_difficult_cin/. Retrieved 2009-02-23.
External links
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