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

...see what's going on with the On The Road movie. Not much info. found so far on the web. But here is the IMDB page for the project: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0337692/ It'll be interesting to see how Salles brings the book to life. Did I hear that it was going to be shot on B & W ? I would have gone with color. Rich 50's colors. But then again I haven't made a successful bio-epic yet, so perhaps Walter knows a thing or two about this kind of a project. I am a huge fan of On The Road the book. It saved me from a bleak Chicago Winter in the early 90's. Looking forward to seeing the movie. If you've got any cool On The Road movie links, post 'em in comments please. Thanks. - Sujewa

Check it out here. Thanks! - Sujewa

Went to see several bands at a performance venue/store called Sangha in Takoma Park, MD last night. Saw/heard the local Kensington, MD darlings The Parlor Scouts & discovered a new & excellent band called Nice Zombie . Bought the Nice Zombie CD "Zombie Tea Party" (only $5!), good stuff, rocked out to it on the drive home last night. Sangha has a screen so a Date Number One screening has been set up there for July 13 at 8 PM, $5. Will have all the details soon (like later today). I had to return my computer monitor to its owners on Fri (thanx jim & ellen!) so went shopping for a new one yesterday. Got a used 17" monitor from a place called PC Retro in Beltsville, MD for $30! Sound & music editing on Date Number One coming up this week (doing a bunch of it tonight!!!), & it'll be happening on my new monitor. Should be able to have a final version of the movie this coming week, will mail out screeners to reviewers & theaters & fests, &

I saw it for the first time yesterday. Greg's indieWIRE hosted blog is only a couple of days old I think. Read it here. - Sujewa

Filmmakers Jamie Hook and Deborah Girdwood started the Seattle film production organization WigglyWorld Studios in 1995. Over the next few years WigglyWorld expanded, acquired film screening capabilities, and eventually became the Northwest Film Forum (NWFF). At present NWFF is a Seattle cultural landmark that screens art, independent, and foreign films and assists filmmakers in creating their work. For a lengthy history of NWFF, go here . Hook is engaged in film production projects in New York City at the moment. Earlier this week I interviewed Hook through e-mail regarding NWFF, regional filmmaking, his controversial year in Minnesota, and his future plans. Sujewa: Jamie, you are credited with co-founding the mighty & awesome art/indie/foreign movie theater Northwest Film Forum (NWFF) in Seattle, can you please elaborate on that & tell us about what things were like - film screening wise - in Seattle prior to the coming of the NWFF & also can you tell us about the actual

Saw "My Date With Drew", pretty good flick. The actress who played Drew Barrymore towards the end of the movie did an awesome job I thought :) LA should be a fun place to hang out. Looking forward to visiting that famous movie city & playing Date Number One there at some point this year & hanging out w/JB & the H.I.T. crew & other friends. LA looked fun & kind of normal in MDWD. A lot of the LA peeps may not care about the kind of no-budget, DIY, no star movies that I care about, but they do care about movies in general, so it won't all be massive alienation all the time, we'll have some stuff in common. - Sujewa

Here's the plan so far: Date Number One theatrical screenings Ultra-low budget D.I.Y. US tour, part 1 July - November 15 (or so), 2006 Cities (exact order to be determined): Washington, DC (again) Baltimore, MD New York City, NY Chicago, IL Los Angeles, CA San Francisco, CA Seattle, WA (again) Austin, TX Dallas, TX Number of screenings per city, exact dates & times, venues, related special events, are all being figured out this month. In addition to those cities, we are playing Kensington, MD on June 24th (see SCREENINGS at wilddiner.com for more info). In '07 I will be playing 11 additional cities, part 2 of the Date Number One US tour. More info. on '07 screenings will be available in the coming months. The film will also be submitted to several festivals around the country. So it is entirely possible that you may be able to see the movie in a theatrical setting this year even if your city is not on the above list. And if none of that works for you, the flick will b

The thing about leaving comments at blogs is that it is a non-real time conversation that may or may not happen fully, and when it does happen, due to only getting typed words, may lead to misunderstandings. So, the opportunities for miscommunication are great during blog comment conversations. This is however a true life story about a blog comment driven conversation that was unexpected & that went really well/had a very positive outcome. Here's how it unfolded: 1. Around 11 AM today, I am up, groggy, having my morning tea, checking out Caveh 's (Caveh "I Am A Sex Addict" Zahedi's) blog, some person posting in the comments section is down on regional filmmaking, so I post a pro-regional filmmaking comment as a reaction. 2. 1 PM or so, I get to work, check my e-mail, the author of the "down on regional filmmaking" comment has e-mailed me. Turns out that person - Jamie Hook - is one of the two founders of the awesome Seattle indie/art/foreign film ven

I am working on fine tunining the audio & image, adding some music to Date Number One at the moment. Poster & other promo art, perhaps some merchandise design & creation will also be dealt with this month. If a significant amount of music gets used in the film, I'll create a soundtrack album. If not, perhaps the music used can be offered to people through the website, we shall see. Here's the theatrical & DVD release plan, as it stands at the moment: 2006: - Very Limited, DIY, theatrical* screenings - hopefully at least 60 of them (they'll be listed at the SCREENINGS page at the film's site ) - perhaps some Film fest screenings (gonna start submittin' to some fests this month) - Limited availability of the DVD (limited only in the sense that I am not going to spend gobs of money to advertise it all over the place just yet, and a few retail & web outlets will carry the DVD this year). DVD should be available for purchase for $12 each through

It's OK, decent(for a Hollywood comedy-drama). All the critics I've read have been saying bad things about it. Both The Break Up & The Puffy Chair (two new flicks that I saw this weekend) deal w/the ending of a romantic relationship, and ultimately I think The Puffy Chair does a better job at the task. The cinematography in The Break Up is definitely better, but overall, for my $9, Puffy is the better film of the two. - Sujewa

Went to see The Puffy Chair on Fri 6/2 night w/Michael Tully & Todd Rohal & a few others. Puffy is a funny & interesting movie, good acting (specially by the lead), the camera work was not so hot, but all in all - RECOMMENDED. Except for a fainting Amanda episode who gave us all a scare (she's fine), it was an excellent night. Was nice to meet Mike & Todd in person finally. Hope to see their flicks ( Cocaine Angel , The Guatamalan Handshake ) soon. Viva MD New Wave! - Sujewa