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

The Sri Lankan government troops have re-taken control of a disputed town (killing 152 rebels, according to SL gov) & the rebels (LTTE) have pulled back to their former positions in territory that has been controlled by them for several years. This BBC article gives some useful background info. & analysis regarding the last few days of fighting, triggered by the rebels denying water to thousands of farmers. - Sujewa

NYC Trip Hey everyone, I am coming to NYC for a visit! Time to go put out some flyers & other promo material for the Date Number One 8/31 NYC premiere @ Pioneer Theater, help make some tix sales happen. Also looking forward to checking out the city, hanging out w/ some friends, making some new friends. I'll be in NYC from Sat 8/12 until Mon 8/14 (leaving on Mon PM or Tue 8/15 AM), if ya wanna hang, let me know (wilddiner AT aol.com). New Direction Through my own work & through the work of a few other DIY filmmakers/projects (The Last Broadcast & Head Trauma/Lance Weiler, Greg Pak's Robot Stories, Gene Cajone's The Debut, etc.) it is fully clear to me that an interesting & excellent feature length film can be made for a very low budget, can be self-distributed, and can be profitable. So I know I will always have a way to make movies & get them out. I am currently planning two films to be shot back to back next year. So far my films have been mostly self-

Blogger & media professor Chuck Tryon caught the World Premiere of Date Number One on May 13. Here are a couple of paragraphs from his review of the movie, which was the very first review of DNO: " Like the characters in Jarmusch's Coffee and Cigarettes who reflect on concepts of celebrity and fame, Date Number One's twentysomethings find themselves returning to certain questions, in Date's case the potential relationship between quantum mechanics and Buddhism, with varying degrees of seriousness and authority. The conversations provide some degree of unity between the various episodes, but more importantly, the conversations seem to suggest the way in which ideas or concepts can weave their way through a community of artists and readers who spend a lot of time in bookstores and coffeehouses. An overheard snippet of conversation might be picked up by someone else, and the questions about Buddhism and quantum mechanics take an unexpected direction. Finally, I think

Found Alex "Repo Man, Sid & Nancy" Cox's website last night. Here's what he has to say about a new film project called Searchers 2.0 : " The virtue of the microfeature is that it costs very little and is intended to be viewed primarily on TV and on DVD. If it plays in the cinema, that's cool too. But films don't make money in the cinema: they lose money there, thanks to the print, publicity and marketing costs, and the producer ends up in debt to the theatrical distributor. SEARCHERS 2.0 is at the point that REPO MAN was in 1983 - just before we made the deal with Universal. It could be made as a low budget feature by a studio (or by one of the studios' London subsidiaries). Or it can be made as a free-standing, independent feature, by a limited company set up for that purpose. " Read the rest here. - Sujewa

I received this request from Mel Duncan, Executive Director of the international peace activist organization Nonviolent Peaceforce (NP) today. Heavy fighting broke out in Sri Lanka earlier this week and NP workers & other civilians are caught between the LTTE & Sri Lankan Government's fighting. Here's the NP request: EMERGENCY ACTION REQUEST: Immediate Ceasefire and Respect for International Humanitarian Law in Sri Lanka 3 August 2006 Dear Friends and Colleagues, I write to you about an emergency. Almost unnoticed by the international community, heavy fighting has broken out in Eastern Sri Lanka this week. Since Tuesday, LTTE (Tamil Tigers) and government forces have been battling in the Muthur, Sampur and Mavil Aaru areas of Trincomalee District, where our teams have been active for almost three years. In Mutur town the entire civil infrastructure has collapsed and the civilian population – Tamil, Muslim and Sinhalese alike- is seeking refuge in mosques, churches and s

Just spent a few minutes chatting with DC based filmmaker Jeff Krulik . Jeff was at the Kensington Row Bookshop to videotape a friend talking about his book about Jim Morrison of The Doors & the time Morrison spent living in Alexandria, VA. I am going to try to do an interview with Jeff re: his films & upcoming projects. He is famous for making Heavy Metal Parking Lot. AMIR MOTLAGH DIGS DATE NUMBER ONE ! Amir makes good movies (he is working on a feature called Whale right now), so when he called me around 2 AM this morning & told me that he just saw Date Number One & congratulated me on it, told me that he likes the movie a lot, it was a very nice moment. Amir said he will write & publish on the web a review of the flick very soon. Will post the link as soon as I see it. Thanks for checking out the movie Mr. Amir. Brian "The Film Panel Notetaker" Geldin ( website , MySpace ) is the publicist I hired to help get the word out re: the 8/31 screening of Dat

20 cities! Kat Candler's SXSW 06 selected film JUMPING OFF BRIDGES is about to embark on a screening tour. Here are the dates so far: 8/9, Dallas, TX, Dallas Video Festival , Angelika Film Center, 7pm 8/11, Lubbock TX, Flatland Film Festival 9/13, Seattle, WA, Broadway Performance Hall 9/15, Albuquerque, NM 9/15 - 9/21, Overland Park, KS, Kansas City International Film Festival 9/30, San Antonio, TX, Historic Guadalupe Theater at Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center , 7pm October, Baltimore, MD, TBA October, Washington DC, TBA October, Chicago, IL, TBA October or November (week run), Jacksonville, FL, San Marco Theater , TBA 10/3, Austin, TX, Alamo Drafthouse South , 7pm 10/3 - 10/8, New Haven, CT, Connecticut Film Festival 10/6 - 10/7 (weekend run), Tallahassee, FL, All Saints Cinema 10/7, Boston, MA, Capital Theater , 6:30pm 10/14, Nashville, TN, Belcourt Theater , 2pm 10/14, Houston, TX, Rice University Media Lab , 7pm 10/26, Portland, OR, The Hollywood Theater November, Los Angel

I drew this on a post-it note a couple of days ago. Jerry "Hollywood Is Talking" Brewington & friend Bill Coy helped me turn it into the appropriate size for web purposes. Thanks a lot Jerry & Bill. I am now working on pulling stills & coming up w/ posters, post cards, flyers, etc. Also need to learn some graphic design programs quick. Lots of fun ahead. - Sujewa Date Number One NYC premiere 8/31, 9 PM, Pioneer Theater Buy Tickets Now! t h n x!

I am still getting used to the idea of giving some of the Date Number One distro work load to someone else, but I think it will be worth it in the long run. The whole situation is not as indiewood as it sounds, I already knew the publicist & he gave me an excellent deal on the work - to promote the Thu 8/31, 9 PM screening of Date Number One at Pioneer Theater, NYC. Once I get more comfortable w/ the idea of employing a publicist (for the 9 screenings of DNO so far, only I did the publicity work, now this 10th screening will have 2 peeps doing publicity - self & the publicist, pretty strange & new to me, but NYC is huuuge & the Pioneer screening is important, so I am very grateful for the help) & some publicity work has been done, I will introduce the publicist to the readers of this blog & will talk about some of the useful work that a publicist may be able to do for your film. Even an ultra-low budget publicist may be very useful in getting the word out about

A flick that so many critics are having a problem with, according to the IFC blog , may be worth checking out, specially since it was directed by Luc Besson. The new movie Angel-A features a dude from Amelie in the lead male role, & is a black & white flick that sounds inspired by It's A Wonderful Life. There may be some good ideas & moments in there somewhere, even if the whole thing may not have come together too well. Looking forward to seeing it. - Sujewa

The list is of course relatively meaningless because there are 100s of new filmmakers worth watching right now (about 15 of them at Indie Features 06) and it is indie film (meaning anyone who makes a good film is worth watching, it is a wide open field, open to all, which is very, very cool) but it put a smile on my face to see Mike Tully on the list (#18!) and also Todd Rohal (somehow not as much a surprise). Congrats Todd & Mike! We will have to celebrate at the next secret meeting of the MD New Wave (so secret, even the members do not know when it is & do not know about the exact activities of the movement. secret but powerful. the veritable nexus of the DIY, Indiewood, Hollywood film worlds). One more time, go Mike & Todd!!! - Sujewa note to self: see The Guatemalan Handshake, Todd's flick. ps: here's para 1 from Mike Tully's section: "Filmmaker, musician, blogger and housepainter Michael Tully has been keeping himself busy the past year. It was only a