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

Next movie/"Untitled January 07 Production" update: Jennifer Blakemore (pictured) from Date Number One (Jen played Sunshine in Story 2 of DNO) will be one of the lead actors in my next movie (for some appreciation of her acting work, check here and here ). I have two completed scripts (one from '96, one from '98) & one of these will be updated & produced, with pre-production starting around January 15, 2007. It will be a no budget DV feature. A comedy/comedy-drama. And I hope to make it available on DVD (mail-order & through some retail stores) in the first quarter of '07, while it screens wherever I can get it to screen. :: Previous movie/"Date Number One" update: My May '06 completed feature Date Number One will be available on DVD (mail-order & through some retail stores) starting at some point in January '07. Will know the exact date in a few days - w/ in the first week of January - will announce the exact availability dat

" Happy New Year Baby!" (click on the words to see who said them)

Well, overactive bloggers might be stretching things a bit, but this blog, Indie Features blog & The Workbook does get a fair amount of traffic & stuff we talk about in those blogs get mentioned in other indie film blogs sooner or later, so, indie screening venue owners (including microcinemas) who might want to get the attention of motivated new filmmakers & new & old bloggers might want to go here on Workbook blog & add their venue's info. & booking contact info. One great way for real indie venues to compete with the Landmarks of America is to offer totally unique programming (as Pioneer in NYC & a few other real indie venues do) and that means being in the lookout for good films that either never made it to the festivals or did well at festivals but did not get distributor attention. Indie filmmakers & indie theaters dealing directly with each other can perhaps offer a competitive advantage to some indie venues. Sure it's a bit of extra work

I think I read about 20 - 30 film blogs on a regular basis (let's say every week). One that I should read more but didn't get in the habit of doing so in '06 is Cinematical . Also, The House Next Door . Perhaps in '07 I can work Cinematical & House Next Door in more. So, out of the ones I read frequently, here are my favorite blogs from this year. I am treating the indieWIRE's blogs page as a blog because some days I just go there & read parts of posts from several blogs. Looking forward to discovering more good film blogs in '07 (feel free to suggest some in Comments). OK, the '06 faves list: 1. GreenCine Daily 2. IndieWIRE's Blogs page 3. Anthony Kaufman's blog 4. Filmmaker Magazine's Blog AND Hollywood Is Talking (we've got a tie here, Filmmaker's got some solid indie coverage, & H.I.T.'s got a nice mixture of DIY/Indie & Hollywood film stuff/sensational Hollywood stuff, equally rewarding reading) 5. The Chutry Expe

Cool DC movie theaters that are no longer there. Nice to think back on them though, as some people in the comments section of the following pages have done: Biograph i was in their projector room once The Janus saw several movies there, saw Hi Fidelity in their theater with the "column" Outer Circle (didn't find a page i can link to) where i saw Amelie about 5 times when it first came out Visions where i screened my film 17 DC Poets - Sujewa

Read about it here . Thanks indieWIRE for the link. - Sujewa

I just watched the movie The Great New Wonderful, a movie that Vivendi Visual Entertainment is pushing as a comedy (on the DVD box front they call it: A Brilliant Comedy, and on the back they forget to mention the real story of the movie). Wonderful is a drama about several New Yorkers dealing with the aftershock of the 9-11 attacks. It is a good drama, with some humor, and a diverse cast. But definitely not a comedy. Also not brilliant. Vivendi or whoever OK'd the DVD box packaging owes me a comedy. - Sujewa

For one, it may end up being a 90 minute film as opposed to the 115 minute film that it was in '06. After not touching the Final Cut Express files for a couple of months & just thinking about the movie, I think I've come up with several ways to polish up the movie (so that the very rough edges mentioned in several reviews can be gotten rid of) and make it flow faster & better. Also, any scenes with significant/un-fixable visual or audio problems will be cut out & the stories will be re-written through editing so that they still make sense. Also, one whole story may be taken out of the movie or one story may be drastically shortened (so, as opposed to 5 stories, we may end up with 4 stories or 4.25 stories). Back to editing. The Date Number One that people will see in '07 will be a vastly different (& hopefully much better) movie than the one they saw in '06. Very exciting. On the distribution/exhibition front I will be submitting to some festivals in 

Some of the most interesting art/indie movies that I saw or heard about this year were self-distributed movies. In celebration, here are some lists (titles in alphabetical order): List 1: Select 2006 Theatrically Self-Distributed* Low Budget Indie Films (*multiple cities, commercial screenings outside of film fests or similar events): Date Number One Four Eyed Monsters Head Trauma Jumping Off Bridges Kicking Bird LOL Manhattan, Kansas Mardi Gras: Made in China Mutual Appreciation List 2: Select Indie Features That Took At Least 1 Step Outside of the Film Festival Circuit (at least 1 DIY theatrical or alterna venue screening in '06): Cocaine Angel Dance Party, U.S.A. Deadroom The Proper Care & Feeding of an American Messiah List 3: Select 2006 Hybrid (Indiewood & DIY) or New Distribution Projects Worth Checking Out: 51 Birch Street Cavite I Am A Sex Addict List 4: A well known director self-distributes an art movie list: Inland Empire

Here's the link to My Movie Network's site . And the first couple of lines from E-Commerce News' article on the biz: "My Movie Network is a very interesting free service which allows users to film their own independent movies by finding the right cast members through the embedded user network and then upload these videos for evaluation by the community. A staff member at MMN told me that the goal of their service is to showcase “the work of true filmmakers, independent, indie and student film makers who would like to create quality content such as short or feature films they would be proud to enter into a film festival or a contest.” " Read the rest of that article here . More on MMN soon. - Sujewa

Over half a dozen lists, all in one place , from the fine & sexy folks at Green Cine (the people who bring you the mighty GreenCine Daily blog & exactly a gazillion cool movies on DVD & VOD, along with great web articles). Check it out here . - Sujewa