It is with great sadness that we announce that Kartemquin founding partner Jerry Blumenthal passed away today. At the core of Kartemquin since our earliest days in the 1960s, Jerry has a credit on our very first film, Home for Life, and was working with us this year to finish projects on the artist Gerda Bernstein, and Murder the Prepositions, about the poet Les Bridges. Continued

Our classic documentary Golub: Late Works Are The Catastrophes screens for free at Chicago Cultural Center at 6:30pm on Wednesday, October 1st. Reflecting what he calls the “disjunctiveness” of modern life, artist Leon Golub’s massive canvasses depict unpleasant imagery – mercenary killings, torture, and death squads. This documentary reveals the full complexity of Golub’s work, juxtaposing images and ideas, and following the artist at work from 1985 to 2004. Golub offers not simply a profile of a painter with a political conscience, but an investigation into the power of the artist to reflect our times and to change the way we think about our world. Continued

Stefan Kudelski, the inventor of the Nagra portable tape recorder, has died. His revolutionary creation changed filmmaking for ever, and came just as Kartemquin was born. In tribute, here are some thoughts by Gordon Quinn, Kartemquin Co-founder & Artistic Director: Continued

Chicago audiences can see three classic Kartemquin films this week, focusing on the politics of labor, art and healthcare.   This Saturday at 4pm, The Last Pullman Car (1983) will screen for FREE on the historic Pullman site in Chicago, with filmmakers Jerry Blumenthal and Gordon Quinn attending. The film's depiction of the 1981 fight of workers to keep their jobs working at Pullman has renewed relevance 30 years later, showing yet another story of American industry abandoning our workers and communities. The screening is part of the 45th anniversary of Kartemquin Films, and is hosted by South Side Projections, the Pullman State Historic Site, and the Bronzeville/Black Chicagoan Historical Society. Get more information. Continued

The University of Chicago's Doc Films welcomes back Kartemquin Films with a 10-week retrospective featuring 19 of our most memorable documentaries! In celebration of our 45th anniversary, Doc Films is bringing the art of documentary storytelling back to the place where our history began, showing at 7pm every Sunday night Oct 2-Dec 4.   This retrospective is a crowning moment of the long-standing relationship between UChicago and Kartemquin, which was founded by 3 UChicago graduates, and is currently led by Justine Nagan (U Chicago MAPH 2004). The story of Kartemquin, while little known on campus, is possibly one of the biggest successes of UChicago's “Life of the Mind.”   Continued

Europe's most prestigious documentary film festival, IDFA, will honor veteran Kartemquin producer/director Steve James with a full retrospective this year, including the Dutch premiere of his award-winning new film The Interrupters.   Continued

Chicago area fans of Kartemquin's acclaimed documentary Golub: Late Works Are The Catastrophes will have two chances to watch the film for free this week. This is a rare opportunity to see a film hailed by Chicago Reader critic Jonathan Rosenbaum as "probably not only Kartemquin's best film but also the best film account of the creation of a work of art" and discuss it with the film's co-directors, one of whom will be present at each screening. Continued

Kartemquin's films about the late artist Leon Golub, available on the DVD Golub/Spero, are currently enjoying extended runs as part of exhibitions taking place in New York and Vancouver. The New York exhibition "Leon Golub: Live and Die like a Lion?" at The Drawing Center runs until July 23rd, and has already received stellar reviews including a profile by esteemed critic Peter Schjedahl in the New Yorker. Kartemquin's Golub: Late Works are the Catastrophes is playing on a loop during the exhibit. Continued

Kartemquin would like to acknowledge the passing of our longtime friend and valued sound mixer Ric Coken, who died on Dec 31 2009. Ric, a professor in Columbia College Chicago's Film and Video Department, worked with Kartemquin over a number of years, getting sound mizing credits on Hoop Dreams, Golub, The Last Pullman Car, and Taylor Chain. Read an obituary of Ric Coken here. Continued