ARTHOUSE FILM NEWS - Cosmic Disco Detective Rene at Facets, Chicago 11/29/23

Today I started working on my hopefully rather large post re: Jarmusch movies, for 1/22, for the Jim Jarmusch Blog-a- Thon (goes all week, for all you busy bloggers out there, write something about Jarmusch that week & let me know & I'll mention it here & will link to it - thanks!). The NYC cinema blog The Reeler mentioned the Blog-a- Thon recently. Here's what The Reeler said: " -- Bloggers unite! Or whatever it is we do: DIY filmmaking guru Sujewa Ekayanake proposes a Jim Jarmusch blog-a- thon in honor of the director's forthcoming 54 th birthday Jan. 22. I'll have my hands full, but I figure someone around here might be able to pull something together." (btw, Reeler misspelled my last name, it's Eka naya ke (not - yana -), easy enough mistake though, that's a tough one for non-Sri Lankans I bet :) Check it & other Reeler stuff here . Thanks Reeler ! - Sujewa

The Jim Jarmusch blog-a-thon is on baby, it's on! Cool film blogs that I have not seen before are writing about Jarmusch movies & linking to this blog re: the blog-a-thon. Most excellent. Oh, it is officially January 22 now, so: HAPPY BIRTHDAY JIM! Here's hoping for a gazillion million more birthdays for ya & at least a few dozen more awesome movies from ya. U Rock 'cause U made (as far as i can tell, by making Stranger & its success) indie film as we know it possible (warts & indiewood & $undance & all, but still better than a lot of things in this crooked caravan of a world :), yup, the world is a better place - at least for some film geeks, maybe for a few more peeps, by you being here & doing what u do). The blog What's He Filming In There writes lovingly about the Jarmusch film Broken Flowers. Check it out here . Anyone else who posts anything about Jarmusch this week, let me know about it (wilddiner AT aol.com, or leave a comment), wil

Thanks a lot GreenCine Daily (best film blog around). Check out the mention here , on the very top of the page! Here's the link for the call for the Jim Jarmusch Blog-a-Thon, which I posted yesterday. Let's make it happen during the week of January 22nd (JJ's b-day): 1/21 - 1/27. Let me know if you post any Jarmusch items for the event, or at any point this month - leave a comment. Thanks!

J anuary is Jim Jarmusch's birthday month so much of my blogging this month will be regarding the director and his films. I am encouraging other bloggers to join me in the festivities the week of Jarmusch's b-day - the week that contains Jan. 22 - and blog something about Jarmusch - so that an old fashioned Blog-a-Thon may happen. This is my post #3 re: Jarmusch this month. See post 2 and post 1 by scrolling down. Ordinary Existence Is Enough What is the subtext of Jarmusch movies (specially the earliest one to contain his mature style - Stranger Than Paradise )? What relatively invisible thing draws the fans back over and over to Jarmusch's movies. I say relatively invisible because usually not much happens in a typical film fashion in Jarmush movies. Even far less than in Seinfeld, a show famous for being a show "about nothing". One attractive thing might be the fact that Jarmusch movies - specially Stranger Than Paradise and Mystery Train , also Night On Earth

Indie film, as we know it, probably would not have happened when it happened without Jim Jarmusch's Stranger Than Paradise becoming the unexpected success that it became around 1984. So let's show some appreciation. Jarmusch's birthday, according to this Wikipedia article , is on January 22. If anyone wants to join me in a Blog-A-Thon that week & post something about Jarmusch on your blog, let me know. I'll link to posts here. Thanks! - Sujewa

A big thanks to everyone who participated in the Jarmusch blog-a-thon. It was fun, & useful, filmmaking wise, to reflect on Jarmusch's career so far. Perhaps I'll do this again next year, next January, for Jarmusch's next birthday. Here's what else is going on over here this weekend: the latest Iraq war protest is happening in DC - very interesting, huge turnout I hear, hopefully something good will come out of it. I went to see an opera tonight in Rockville - long, interesting, like a movie but without cinematography, liked it (at least until the intermission, was kinda tired after that) - saw Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro (first performed in 1786!), performed by the Bulgarian State Opera (i thought they did an excellent job), i think this was my first time at an opera. Did some work on the Date Number One DVD & posters, DVD cover yesterday, more work on that coming this week & hopefully by the end of the week the DVD will be completed, and will

Thanks GreenCine Daily , best film blog around. Check out their post here. The blog-a-thon goes all week long, so let me know if you write something on Jarmusch or his movies, e-mail me at: wilddiner AT aol.com or leave a comment. Thanks!

So how's that for an interesting blog name? Complex name aside, The Film Vituperatem has an enthusiastic review of Jim Jarmusch's Dead Man , written for the Jarmusch blog-a-thon happening now. Here is a segment from the review: "Aftertaste: I have no idea what happened to Jim Jarmusch in the four years between Night On Earth and this. It's like he became an entirely different director. From two films about short stories with very little plot, to this deep tale of fate, rebirth, and spirituality. I have two more films to watch of his to complete my study of his works, and after having seen this and Ghost Dog , I'll tell you I'm completely stoked." Read the entire review here .

After this coming week - which is the Jim Jarmusch birthday week & thus the week of the JJ Blog-a-Thon (should other bloggers decide to post some Jarmusch items), I will be writing less about general film/indie film/other stuff and writing only when a relevant Date Number One or another Wild Diner Films news item comes up. This should give me more time to get lost in the new script and also put more energy into Date Number One distribution and of course get more done at the day job - which helps with film stuff & the overall life maintenance/quality of life project. That's the latest direction for the blog. But first, something about Jim Jarmusch, coming later today!

Tired of hearing about Japanese financed, indiewood distributed Jim Jarmusch movies at this blog? Wanna hear about some ultra-low budget, self-distributed and excellent films? Then take a look at this long review I wrote of the yet-largely-undiscovered but well made & entertaining indie mockumentary The Proper Care & Feeding of an American Messiah . Flick's director Chris Hansen just announced that the DVD is available through Customflix . Check out the review! Buy the DVD! And we'll be back with more Jarmusch posts soon :), got 3 days left on the JJ blog-a-thon! :: And in other DIY DVD news, my well received (by the 500 or so audience members so far, including a half a dozen reviewers) flick Date Number One will definitely be available on DVD starting at some point in February (just a half a dozen more hours of work left on the DVD portion of the project) from the Wild Diner Store & a few other places, more on that DVD & the film very soon. Screening of DNO

Hmmm, here's what the upcoming week lookes like: day job work/FT - got bills to pay, Date Number One DVD creation (!deadline 1/15 IS NEAR!!!), preparing for the Jim Jarmusch Blog-a-Thon (happening the week of 1/22 - JJ's b-day), getting the room organized (that item has been postponed all 2006 long, time to tackle it now), some family & friends visits, general maintanace stuff (sleep, communing with the UFO dudes, etc.), working on the new screenplay (hung out with star Jen B. a couple of nights ago, got some interesting ideas for possible stuff for her character's story in the new flick), I think that's about it. Talk to ya soon/when something interesting happens or happens to come past my eyes. - Sujewa

Here's what Ghost Dog star Forest Whitaker had to say about Jarmusch in the article : "I really liked working on [Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai]. It was different because it started different. Jim had an idea, and he would meet with me, and we would just talk for hours and hours about myth or about codes or about whatever. And we would do that a few times. Then he went away and wrote the script, came back and gave it to me. In his way, he felt it represented a part of me. That character to him is a symbolized way of how he perceived me." Read the whole article here . More Jarmusch posts coming all this week, as this is the JJ blog-a- thon week. And here is the IMDB page for Ghost Dog .

Just in time for Jim Jarmusch's b-day week celebration blogging festival/blog-a-thon/whatever, FilmFanatic has reviewed Down By Law . Check it out here .