For over forty-five years, New Yorker Films has been America's leading source for the films on the cutting edge of world cinema. The company was founded in 1965 by Daniel Talbot as an outgrowth of his legendary movie house, the New Yorker Theater. Unable to obtain several crucial foreign titles, Talbot was obliged to import them himself. Early acquisitions such as Bertolucci's BEFORE THE REVOLUTION, Godard's LES CARABINIERS, and Sembene's BLACK GIRL established New Yorker's still vital tradition of presenting the world's most innovative, artistically significant, and politically engaged films. Controversial and challenging works considered untouchable by other distributors have been regularly taken on by New Yorker (and often turned into surprise hits), including Jacques Rivette's self-reflexive masterpiece CELINE AND JULIE GO BOATING, Chantal Akerman's feminist landmark JEANNE DIELMAN...,and Claude Lanzmann's monumental Holocaust documentary SHOAH, to mention just a few. Always on the alert for fresh talent and new trends, New Yorker Films was the primary force in introducing this country to the pioneering postmodernist 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 recent acquisitions have explored exciting new frontiers in the Iranian, Asian, and Eastern European cinemas. In a time when the term "independent" has been loosely applied to subsidiaries of giant conglomerates, New Yorker stands as one of the most durable, important, and truly independent film distributors. In its fourth decade, New Yorker Films still represents the vanguard of film distribution in the United States.