Just a decade ago, two enterprising New York women, Nancy Gerstman and Emily Russo, dared to start up a distribution company which would specialize in anti-mainstream, formally inventive, thematically unusual films, these made by filmmakers who showed no compromise. Gerstman and Russo also showed no compromise, choosing to distribute only the very few films which they both genuinely admired. Often, their choices were so bold that they were not only ahead of audiences but of many critics also.

However, Gerstman and Russo persisted. They picked up young filmmakers for Zeitgeist early in careers, such as Atom Egoyan, Guy Maddin, Todd Haynes, the Quays. They managed to attract important gay filmmakers, women filmmakers such as Yvonne Rainer, inventive Europeans such as Derek Jarman, Peter Greenaway, Jan Svankmajer. They built up a major reserve of great films so that their Zeitgeist Tenth Anniversary Catalogue is a veritable treasure. And many of the so-called "difficult" films now are part of the standard repertoire. They finally seem as accessible to audiences and critics, as they always have to Gerstman and Russo, the prescient, impressively avant-garde distributors behind Zeitgeist.

Happy Birthday! Thanks for your sublime Zeitgeist films! – Gerald Peary