Date Number One screenings coming up in NYC in December

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UPDATE 11/2 Mon, 1 PM: Screening dates are every Wed & Fri of December, except for Fri 12/25, at Aeon Logic Art Gallery in Brooklyn, doors at 6 PM, opening acts (if any) at 6:30 PM, show begins at 7 PM, $5 - more info soon.

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Several screenings of Date Number One (my most recently completed fiction feature, a comedy about several first dates) are coming up in December, in NYC, in time to promote the DVD & just because going out to see a movie - specially a real indie movie at an alternative venue & hanging out with other people who are also into it - is a lot of fun (also this will be a part of that Re-Birth of Indie Film that I've been talking about). Details about the screenings coming soon.

- Sujewa

PUMit claims to offer internet VOD + PayPal ability & other distribution/monetizing options for filmmakers/content owners

One of my wishes for some time now has been that someone would invent a free or very affordable system/technology that would allow individual filmmakers to deliver their films over the web to customers AFTER the customers have paid for it using PayPal or some other popular, easy to use payment system.

There are already internet VOD companies that can do the work for you; but the actual work, download data, pricing, etc. is a couple of steps removed from the filmmaker at this point - or the filmmaker submits the film to a company/distribution service, they sell it over the web, & give the filmmakers a share of the revenue - that's generally how things work in internet VOD at the moment.

The kind of service/technology I want to see in existence would make the "middle person business" optional; filmmakers being able to sell their films directly to audiences, collect money, etc. - if they wish. On certain projects this may be a useful option to have (and this is also an interest arising from my drive to find gatekeeper free options for indie film production & distribution, since the gatekeepers - studios, critics, distribution companies, film fest programmers, etc. - have not served many & many kinds of filmmakers well in the past).

PUMit seems to be offering just that kind of technology and service (don't know how much, if any, it costs) to content producers. From PUMit's site, info. page:

"For different period of time and authorized countries, you can allow your audience to preview a part of your film and you define the conditions to be fulfilled to watch your film."

And:

"PUMit provides comprehensive dashboards to help you tracking the sales of your films, to analyze their audience, to understand where and how they are watched."

PUMit offers the ability to offer paid VOD, sponsored VOD, & free VOD to consumers. Explore more here.

- Sujewa

Congrats on the phase 1 fundraising OpenIndie

OpenIndie raised their target $s through Kickstarter - for phase 1 of their experimental distribution project. Congrats, looking forward to seeing what happens next.

Here's the indieWIRE article about OpenIndie.

Check out info on John Reiss's new indie film distribution book

Get all the info here. More on Think Outside the Box coming soon.

Tonight - Jonas Mekas, Sixty Years In New York

At Anthology Film Archives.

Here's the program:

"Jonas Mekas
A LETTER TO PENNY ARCADE (2001, 15 minutes, video)
SELFPORTRAIT (1970, 20 minutes, video)
WILLIAMSBURG, BROOKLYN (1950/2003, 15 minutes, video)
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A MAN WHO CARRIED HIS MEMORY IN HIS EYES (2000, 50 minutes, video)
Total running time: ca. 105 minutes."

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Upcoming Showings:

• Friday Oct 30 8:00 PM

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More here.

I owned a copy of this book once

First time I got it I got it as maybe an X-mas gift from a friend in MD, & then I found another copy later, now I am pretty sure I still have a copy somewhere in my boxes, but if not, need to find another copy of this book, need to read up on some old timey* underground filmmakers.

And here's the guy who wrote it, still around.

And here's Amazon's page for An Introduction to the American Underground Film by Sheldon Renan.

Bad Lit blog has an article about the book.

Check this book out indie film artists, if you get a chance, might have some good ideas in it.

Italian Neo-Realism at Lincoln Center

Get all the info. about the Italian Neo-Realism and the Birth of Modern Cinema screening series at Lincoln Center, NYC here. Runs 10/30 - 11/25.

Nice quote for the next wave of indie filmmakers to think about

It is absolutely essential that we establish a culture of making & distributing films independent of Hollywood & Indiewood ambitions & support & control structures in order to keep things interesting, alive, open, & keep indie film growing as an art form, a form of entertainment, a delivery method for new & interesting ideas, an avenue for personal & community freedom & expression, also to keep indie film as an accessible small business practice open to all. Not gonna be easy to do, & the way is not clear as to how we will get to the destinations mentioned earlier, but we'll figure it out. And now, for the inspirational quote, from DC musician Guy Picciotto (Fugazi, etc.), from the 90's, from book Dance of Days: Two Decades of Punk in the Nation's Capital, from page 323:

" "We'll keep on putting out our own records, managing ourselves, booking ourselves, and staying supremely autonomous," said Picciotto. "We never got in a band to be popular. Basically we like to play our music. We considered ourselves a success from our first show just because we played. I consider the band to be getting better because we're getting along better. Those are the kind of things I'm interested in as opposed to how many people are coming to the shows or how much the records are selling." "

More at the book Dance of Days.

Consider that approach indie filmmakers; benchmarks of success far different from the ones Hollywood & Indiewood have for themselves. Sure, Picciotto was talking about music making, but his approach to determining success can easily be applied to film making. Do it 'cause you love to do it, do it with means available to you or get what you need to do it however you can, and make the finished work available to people however you can, & then repeat with the next project - don't worry about critical praise or distribution deals - make films like art, show & sell it as such, slowly grow the practice/business at a pace & scale comfortable & enjoyable to you. If the ways that will work best for your filmmaking practice have not been invented yet, then invent them. Experiment, fail, enjoy, get it together, succeed (on your own terms).

- Sujewa

Reads like a Hollywood cop story

One thread in the Vanity Fair article on the Mumbai attacks reads like something out of a Hollywood cop movie (of the more downbeat & realistic type - more Traffic than Training Day). From the article, Where Were the Police? section:

"Speeding toward the hotel that night, Vishwas Nangre Patil, Bombay’s deputy police commissioner, tried to keep himself from erupting in rage. His command was Zone 1 of the city’s 12 police districts, a plum assignment that included the five-star hotels, South Bombay’s big corporations, and the Gateway of India. Patil knew, however, that his situation was conditional. His first language was Marathi, which set him apart from his superior, Commissioner Hasan Gafoor, who was from a landed feudal family and grew up speaking the Queen’s English."

Read the rest of the article at Vanity Fair.

My Dinner With Melancholy - two interesting movies out on DVD now!

So we've got Medicine for Melancholy & My Dinner With Andre out on DVD, check out the trailers below, & buy the DVDs wherever you buy new DVDs (Amazon is a good place):

Brooklyn Filmmaker Meet Up 10/29

Organized by the Brooklyn Arts Council, get more info here.

New CD - The Amazing Oscar Micheaux

Get info. on the new CD The Amazing Oscar Micheaux - about the pioneering American independent filmmaker - by the band Stace England & The Salt Kings here.

And go here for the band's MySpace page.

Check out tracks & buy music through both sites.

The Re-Birth of Indie Film - coming soon to an alternative venue & a mail box near you

Independent cinema (in the US) did not have to go through 10-20 years of natural development - from grass roots artists & small businesses driven scenes to those same entities forming larger companies - which was the case with independent music - because in 1984 a very unusual, otherwise underground film called Stranger Than Paradise broke through to the mainstream with the assistance of the existing film distribution & publicity infrastructure (including film festivals & critics) and that success story became the foundation for what eventually became indiewood - Hollywood financed & distributed movies with elements of underground/alternative movies. A little over two decades later, indiewood, and what most people know as the independent filmmaking business in America, has collapsed/is collapsing/has come to a screeching halt. So, a re-birth of the independent filmmaking business/practice is needed, also it needs to be pointed in a direction other than Hollywood, with new goals for success and a new vision, a new understanding, as to what it means to be an independent filmmaker.

This is the shape of the new independent film scene - this is what it will look like when it is re-born:

1 - artist driven & mainstream accessible (also kind of like religion or definitely like weird but good & popular food):
- first, re: the artist driven part: the idea that film is a collaborative medium is one popularized by an industry that created & maintained control over a product - its creation & distribution - by the use of multiple sets of workers. Or, sure, Hollywood movies are a collaborative medium, just as creating a painting or a book can be a collaborative activity - but, paintings are also, and mostly, created by lone artists, same with books, and in the same way, the new indie film will be primarily created by one artist. And there will always be exceptions, but indie film will once again become art (similar to other art making) in the way that it is created.
- on the mainstream accessibility part - no matter how exotic or other worldly ones vision & story, it needs to be able to connect with ordinary people, it needs to be able to impart something useful & recognizable, identifiable, helpful-in-some-way to ordinary people - just as myths about a god taking human form (Christianity) or a human transcending the limits of birth & death (Buddhism) have been adapted to the everyday use of billions of ordinary people world wide. People need stories, inspiration, hope or in some cases fear in order to make it through life, religion is one source of these stories for humans, and art is another. As indie film is art, indie film will have to think about meeting people's intellectual & emotional needs as they deal with existence - and those films & makers who do so will be rewarded with a large following/customer base.
-- another example of mainstream accessibility while retaining a unique voice & outlook is success enjoyed by unusual food/chefs/restaurants. People always need new sensations to get excited about - indie film artists can provide those.

2. A business that is not very closely related to Hollywood or the left-overs of Indiewood:
- not concerned with budgets, grosses, or stars
- not concerned with agents & lawyers
- not automatically in line with intellectual, creative, cultural, moral views & beliefs of Hollywood, sometimes completely opposed to it

- definitely concerned with making projects profitable, no matter how small - eventually profitable (not necessarily all the films by one artist, but enough to make the more experimental ones affordable)
- what the business aspect will look like/an overview: 1- the indie film artist - the writer/director/videographer/editor - makes the movie with available or acquired means, with or without assistance from other artists, entrepreneurs or institutions, 2. the finished film is made available to audiences through D.I.Y. screenings at alternative venues & through mail-order DVDs, & through other means when they become useful/affordable for individual filmmakers to use - avenues such as internet VOD, cable VOD, etc., 3. filmmaker develops multiple revenue streams - from the film (screenings $s, DVD sales $s), merchandise, & through the brand name he or she will acquire by being an active/productive film artist.

3 - all of the elements of the old indie film system - studios/indiewood, film festivals, investors, distribution companies other than ones owned & operated by the filmmakers, critics will not be used. using those will weaken - when it comes to self-sufficiency - the new indie film scene and the new indie filmmaker.

4 - no gate keepers, no experts - any indie film artist will be able to learn, relatively easily - due to the existence of the web, how to make & distribute their work - without permission or support from Filmmaker Magazine blog or Ted Hope or Arin Crumley, indieWIRE, Sundance Film Festival, or even this blog (note - i am a fan of all the people & institutions mentioned, just using their names to illustrate a point).

5 - keep everything as simple as possible & as honest as possible & direct as possible. artists can come to clear understandings with other artists when it comes to working together - no need for agents or lawyers (well, no lawyers until a lawsuit has to happen, but, i think, if approached properly, most lawsuits can be avoided) - for the most part.

6 - No despair, no hopelessness, no cynicism, no unnecessary criticism or harsh criticism from indie filmmaker to indie filmmaker (let critics & the cold, outside world handle that, we will instead support each other), & no gossip. Those mental qualities & results of certain mental qualities/habits are for people who are afraid of living & are afraid of the future & cannot create/can only comment on art, & do not trust positive capabilities of humans, & thus are not useful for indie film artists building a new field of creative & business activity. Have plenty of hope & enthusiasm & good will & happiness - those are essential psychological tools for success.

Sources of inspiration for the re-birth of indie film:

1. Oscar Micheaux - made & distributed movies completely outside of Hollywood

2. City Lights Books - an artist driven & owned business, one poet publishing work by his peers

3. Andy Warhol - a recognizable indie film artist (though, probably not good to use him as a model for mainstream accessibility when it comes to his movies)

4. Dischord Records - an independent music label that did evolve through a truly independent/artist driven creative scene & became a stable business

(note - for some gender diversity, Ani DiFranco would fit nicely in the list above, also, I am sure, many female D.I.Y. artist/entrepreneurs that I may not know about)

The Re-Birth of Indie Film will be led by New York City based film artists, for the most part, & will start gathering steam in November & December of 2009, and will be in full bloom, well known nation wide, by mid-2010. Within 2 years, this new non-indiewood/non-hollywood scene will be the norm/will be what people will refer to when they say indie film. It will replace indiewood the way that punk rock & related music replaced disco.

This will be the final message re: the re-birth of indie film, rest will be communicated through action - screenings, DVDs, etc. And in 2-3 years - around 2013 - we will review the new - 2 to 3 years old - indie film scene that was born now. Get to work indie film artists.

- Sujewa

Precious trailer & NYT article about the director

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And here's a New York Times article about the director, Lee Daniels.

California Stars

Zone out now to images of planets & the pretty but somewhat sad muzik:

Invention of Lying trailer

Flick looks funny:

How banks create money out of thin air

Very interesting, & possibly useful, article - check it out. From the article:

"The process a bank uses to create money demonstrates that money is not a commodity in limited supply, where there is only so much to go around. Money is not equivalent to currency. Money is created in money-making transactions, which means there is no potential limit to money."

Read the rest of the article here, at Ezine Articles.

Looks like we're off indieWIRE's blogs page...Excellent

Now I can be even more lazy about blogging than I've been recently, and perhaps, this will free up a tiny bit of more time for actual movie making & distribution. But you never know with indieWIRE, I wouldn't be surprised to wake up tomorrow & see this blog listed on their blogs list again, with feed available - or not. Either way, all good.

But if the blog is completely off of there, that would be good 'cause I can once again blog about less important things (w/ many of iW's blogs mostly covering Hollywood & Indiewood biz deals, it was weird to post about unknown DIY films, self distribution stuff, & Life of Sujewa stuff there, also humanitarian activism & global development related stuff - this blog was an odd fit there - too indie perhaps :). Anyway, we'll see what's what soon. And, like I said above, either way, all good.

- Sujewa

On IFC & other indie distribution options

Filmmaker Ryan Gielen has an interesting & possibly useful post on distribution through IFC vs. other distribution avenues currently available to indie filmmakers, check it out here.

Mid-August Lunch trailer

Here's a UK trailer for an Italian comedy called Mid-August Lunch:

On making the feature Natural Victims (in two weeks)

The Two Week Film Project rolls on, with one of the latest 2 Wk Films being Natural Victims, real all about it here.

My own 2 Wk Film Unlimited Dreamtime will be available to view this fall (so basically my 2 week project will end up being more like a 10 week project, due to the break between ending production & most of the post-production work on it in early September & starting distribution on it hopefully later this month - sounds about right/the usual for me/but still far shorter than 6/8 months - 4 years - the amount of time most of my other films have taken to go from idea to premiere). Will post the link on this blog when that film is on the web.

For more on other 2 Wk Films, go here.

Interview with George Lucas at 27

At /Film, check it out.

Islam + Punk Rock = The Taqwacores

A new sub-genre in punk rock, read all about it (& see a TV report on it too) here; there's a novel, bands/a scene, two films, and a book of photos. All the info. here.

And here's the intro to an the article on Taqwacore:

"Writer Michael Muhammad Knight coined the term "taqwacore" for his novel about a Muslim punk house in Buffalo, NY, which Knight initially distributed from the back of his car as a DIY photocopied zine. In time, the book found widespread publication through Autonomedia and garnered supporters, even inspiring the first woman-led prayer of a mixed-gender Muslim congregation in the United States in 2005. But something far grander was in the works; unbeknownst to Knight, a real Muslim punk scene was starting to emerge, based on the one he had imagined for the book."

More here.

What are the best (most indie friendly) movie theaters in Brooklyn?

Leave names & website URLs, etc. (also stories re: Brooklyn movie theaters) in Comments.

There are a few people who might want to do some special events at indie friendly movie theaters in Brooklyn next year, so we are making a list. Thanks.

Customer, can you hear me? - Momma's Man is funny (& available for streaming on Netflix)

I avoided watching Momma's Man when it first came around because a lot of critics liked it a lot & also mostly because they made it sound like it was depressing, but, after barely making it through an episode of Californication (very painful to watch, and not in any kind of a good way, except maybe for the nudity) tonight and having realized that I've seen all the Office & 30 Rock episodes available on Netflix I decided to check out Momma's Man. I am about 30 mins. into it (had to take a break to help a neighbor), so far the movie is really funny - in a low key way - about a dude hiding out from his life in California at his parent's apt in NYC.

In a way there is a relationship between Californication & Momma's Man. Both shows are somewhat about artists. In Californication the lead character is a writer, but the show is really like some bad fantasy for dudes who are getting old - full of cliches. Momma's Man features real life artists playing a version of themselves (main character dude's parents), also it is about a kind of escapism, but a lot easier to enjoy than Californication.

(i am, however, a big fan of x-files, so, david d., when we run into each other, don't complain about this post, californication just needs better writing - or maybe not, maybe it's customers are very happy with that product).

Anyway, check out Momma's Man (for those of you with Netflix, it's available for streaming). It's not depressing, & is actually funny - even though critic types are into it it's just a regular movie. Here's a trailer:



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Also, since I am talking a lot about Californication in this post, here's a little of that, for compare & contrast purposes (& yes, even though i complain about it, i'll probably watch another episode at some point):

Help OpenIndie build the future

DIY music flashback: Smallpox Champion

Great moments in indie film history flashback: 1989 - The Year of Do The Right Thing

Here's the trailer for Spike Lee's Do The Right Thing, Public Enemy's video for Fight The Power, and a Spike Lee interview re: the 20th anniversary of Do The Right Thing:





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Check out the Spike Lee interview re: the 20 year anniversary of Do The Right Thing at Shadow & Act.

On making Before Sunset

The Free Market & Morality, Boogie Shoes

The Way North: Maghrebi Women in Marseille trailer

Read more about this beautiful looking film at Shadow & Act.

Cleo from 5 to 7 clip, review link, DVD & streaming link

Now if this clip had subtitles it would be better, but still, very interesting:



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Here's a review of the film from Slant. From the review:

"All throughout, Varda captures the fairy-tale essence of early '60s Paris with a vivacity and richness that rivals Godard's Breathless. Unlike her New Wave compatriots, whose talents were reared in part at film schools, Varda was trained in the field of photography and consequently films the city with a completely unique vision. Her framing teems with life at every corner: kittens wrestling in Cléo's apartment, a child playing a tiny piano in an alleyway, and quarrelling lovers in a café. She demonstrates an unerring eye for complex compositions that still manage to delineate between foreground and background planes. And in the bargain, every one of the film's gorgeously designed set pieces enhance our understanding of the character and amplify Cléo's understanding of herself."

Read the rest of the review at Slant.

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A little DVD outfit called Criterion is selling a DVD of the movie, get it here (also you can watch the movie off of Criterion's site for $5).

Agnes Varda: A Life Through Film article on ShortEnd Magazine

From the article:

"The five decades that Agnès Varda’s filmmaking has spanned is certainly an undeniably impressive feat, but what really resonates with the above statement is the simple and unquestionable claim that she is, in every sense of the word, a filmmaker. In her films – more so than in almost any other director’s – it is indisputably clear that filmmaking is not something that Agnès Varda just does, it’s something that she is; it sculpts her just as she has sculpted it. Her life has been lived for and through the cinema, the medium and the very notion of herself now completely inextricable from the other. And it is with regards to Varda’s complex and intimate relationship with film that there is no better culmination than her latest autobiographical, quasi-documentary, The Beaches of Agnès."

Read the rest at ShortEnd Magazine.

Watch indie feature FAME WHORE in its entirety, for free, on YouTube

Fame Whore, in my humble opinion, is the most mainstream accessible of Jon Moritsugu's movies (& still a lot of fun) - check it out here.

ran into maggie gylenhaal on the street

is this worth writing about? probably not, so here it is:

i was walking towards strand a couple of hours ago, thinking about wholesale & retail prices of books.

i noticed a familiar face walking towards me, could not place it immediately, but knew pretty quickly that it was a famous actress.

when we were close/in front of each other i said "hi".

the lady said "hi".

i said "aren't you that famous actress?"

she laughed & said "yeah".

and by this time she was opening a door to a building. so i said "OK, see ya later" or "have a great day" or something like that, and continued to head towards strand.

about a block later i was able to put a name to the face, it was maggie gylenhaal, from the dark knight & secretary.

i thought to myself "hmmm, encounters like that don't usually happen in kensington, md."

Clip from BtD: The Case of the Missing Screenplay

I'll definitely have to catch up with this episode on HBO On Demand this weekend, missed it last night, from Bored to Death, episode 3:

Chris Rock on Polanski

The Polanski segment starts around 2:24:

IFC Center adding 2 more screens!

May be old news for some, but I just heard about it through this indieWIRE article.

On "Whiteness"

Of course in these post-slavery, post-colonial times where belief in race theory is no longer enforced (for the most part) through the threat of violence & death, much of the world is still running blindly & on auto-pilot re: this intellectual construct/tool of conquest - still following it, still using it - so, the critique below can just as easily apply to "Blackness", "Brownness" or "Asianness" & all other fake human divisions that are used to pit one group of people against others & often against themselves for the benefit of a few on top, or a few who want to hold onto or increase their own power & wealth using race theory. Thanks Shadow & Act for the link:

Netflix & iTunes looking good for some indies

From Scott Kirsner's Variety article Indie still looking for internet equation:

"But distributors, producers and indie directors today say that most of their Internet revenues comes from two places: the DVD rental service Netflix, which offers an online streaming service to its members, and Apple's iTunes."

Read the rest of the article at Variety.

And now, for something a little less important...

Warning, this video may make you smile & want to dance:

"real good dead things stay alive"

System Justification & the Law - part 1, 2, & 3

Found these three videos while looking for clips of movies by filmmaker Jon Jost. The following videos are of a presentation by professor Jon T. Jost (not the filmmaker Jon Jost), here's an intro to the material, from the YouTube page for the videos: "Jon Jost's presentation from 2007 Project on Law and Mind Sciences (PLMS) Conference. "System justification theory addresses the holding of attitudes that are often contrary to one's own self-interest and therefore contrary to what one would expect on the basis of theories of self-enhancement or
rational self-interest." " And here are the very interesting videos:

Jon Jost's intro to Italy

Filmmaker Jon Jost has a long blog post, well illustrated, about the political & cultural history of Italy and also Italian cinema. From Jost's blog:

"Bombarded from left and right, Italy passed through the 70’s and 80’s in a kind of tormented state, a time riddled with mysterious deaths, oscillating politics and an economy, like much of the rest of the world, in an upward rush of frantic consumerism. Its premiers – Andreotti, 7 times premier from the 1970’s to 90’s and well-known for Mafia connections, Fanfani, Craxi – were all indicted, tried, and most eluded conviction through technicalities – in the ever-glacial and often corrupted judicial system of Italy the usual exemption would be that the statute of limitations had expired, and hence, whatever the mountains of evidence and proof, one was absolved. The current head of state, Silvio Berlusconi follows in this tradition, a multiple indictee, now wallowing in sex scandals wherein his second younger wife left him, accusing him of having a taste for even younger morsels, one of whom is all of 17."

And, on the cinematic front:

"Lurking in the lush palette which he used were the signals of a nostalgia for an Italy for which he sensed a clear loss. And despite the logic articulated above, Antonioni in his films demonstrated his own incapacity to adapt. So much so that riding his fame he went abroad, to England for Blow Up, and America for Zabriskie Point – both misfired aesthetically, the latter terribly so. His disorientation in the face of the new world reflected closely that of an Italy which could not face its future or its present."

Read & see the rest at Jost's blog.