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

Here's the link. Shot in black & white (video i think, maybe Hi-8), ghostly, fun. I heard the music video is made up of practice/rough draft footage that Jarmusch shot while he was scouting locations & prepping to shoot the video on film, which ended up not happening. I think the original song is by Cole Porter (i could be very wrong on that one). Check it out. - Sujewa

The Blogger spell check feature is not working at the computer I am writing this at, so excuse any spelling errors until I get to my regular computer later today. But anyway: There is definitely a good idea for an indie movie in this Post article . Not just a movie, not a hollywood movie (they would try to make it too broad & mess it up i think), but a good indie movie (maybe a Curb Your Enthusiasm type/fake-varite approach); NYC based comedian and actor Jordan Carlos ( MySpace ) wrote an essa y for the Washington Post (as a part of the Posts' multi-part feature about being a Black male in America ) about being a Black comedian who does not fit certain stereotypes. Here is the introduction to the essay (the whole thing is good reading, features a Colbert Report guest appearance in it): "Casting directors can be anxious creatures. In their zeal to find the right actor for a part they often use shorthand to explain what they want. "More Chris Rock! Less Cosby!"

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

From McSweeney's . :)

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

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!

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

You may have read about the porn industry making billions of dollars. But this Boing Boing article indicates that those figures may not be accurate. Thanks Hollywood Is Talking for the link.

Pictured: John Stabb Schroeder (ninja), Jewel Greenberg, Dele Williams, Cory Seznec, Shervin Boloorian, Christine D. Lee from Date Number One. Photos Copyright 2006 Sujewa Ekanayake/Wild Diner Films There are LOTS of details to be worked out still, good thing we are only on January 5th at the moment. But, thanks to a couple of friends, some LA screenings are being set up for late March or early April. I am working on some DC screenings for March & April (& working on creating THE FINAL version of the film, after which there will be no mo editing on that thing fo evah). I may get some much-more-experienced-than-I-in-indie-film-distro folks to help me with NYC screenings (definitely want to do at least a week there this year) - hopefully in February I'll know about NYC/DNO/Spring '07 theatrical. DC, NYC & LA are the three early theatrical screening goals in '07 for DNO. After that, as many places in the US as possible (& maybe some fests & screenings in o

things are bad but they are almost always worse for Tom Waits's characters. he's back with a whole lot of stories of lowlifes, rejects, and other assorted lively characters it sounds like in this Washington City Paper review of his latest release Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards. Here is a bit from the review: " On his take on Lead Belly’s “Ain’t Goin’ Down to the Well” (a Brawler), an unsteady tambourine keeps time as Waits does rhythm fills with his voice, coughing the lines “Ain’t going down/Mama to the well/Mama to the well...no more” like Cookie Monster on an oxygen machine. There are no guitar solos, just amped-up spiritual uncertainty and sin. “Lie to Me” (another Brawler) finds Waits paying homage to Screamin’ Jay Hawkins. Here Waits’ voice quivers with bluesy swagger and rare jittery energy as he begs his lover to “Slap me baby/Give me your grief/I have no use for the truth.” " i will need to get some of Orphans, yes i will. and that's one well

Sirak Sabahat, who immigrated from Ethiopia to Israel at age 12, is the lead actor of the Israeli movie Live and Become. Here is a little bit from a Washington Post article , about the actor & his family's first trip to Israel: " They walked and walked, until they boarded what they thought was a giant bird, but what was really a time machine taking them, quite literally, to the Promised Land. Israel. Circa 1991. There, the travelers encountered not a land of milk and honey but a place of telephones and TV sets, of porcelain contraptions called toilets and white people who claimed to be Jews, too." Read the fascinating article here . Live and Become has been playing in Washington, DC's Avalon theater for several weeks. Sabahat appears for the 7:50 PM screening & the post-screening discussion tonight at the Avalon, get more info. here . Here is a little bit about the film: " Live and Become is the emotional story of one boy's chance survival amidst the

Pretty cool development I think...even we all the way over here in DC get that newspaper! Congratulations Matt! Here is the link to a recent article by Mr. Seitz, in the NYT. Matt is the founder & a frequent contributor to The House Next Door - a good film blog, and an indie film director (" Home "), and he used to write for the New York Press newspaper and I think a couple of entertainment related publications. At his blog Matt describes his current work for the Times (from a Comment at this post ): "For now it's looking like two or three short reviews a week, with a possibility of doing longer essays or features if they like what they see." It will be fun to see the name of (and the writing of) someone I know from the blog world when I open up the NYT on some days. - Sujewa

pictured: Jennifer Blakemore, me (Sujewa Ekanayake) photos copyright 2007 sujewa ekanayake/wild diner films I need to get some good recent photos (another thing for that '0l '07 2 do list) of myself (the hair hasn't been punkdyed for years now). New Movie Update: working on the script, I think I have a title, the film is gonna have multiple, interconnected stories, with several leads ( Date Number One style). I have not acted in a movie since like '98, looking forward to acting again, this time with the conveniences of digital video & its gift of multiple, multiple takes (for a review of my acting in my ill-fated '99 released feature Wild Diner, go here ("at times perfect for the role, at times not so much..." - Amir Motlagh), we shot that feature on 16 MM, w/ pretty much a 1 to 1 shooting ratio, in pretty much one weekend - not a good idea, too many things were rushed, I've "suppressed" that movie - will probably put it out on DVD in la

From Criterion . Very exciting. Looking forward to finding out more about (& seeing the work of) Robeson & some of his contemporaries such as Oscar Micheaux. Here's the synopsis for the box set, from Criterion: " All-American athlete, scholar, renowned baritone, stage actor, and social activist, Paul Robeson (1898-1976) was a towering figure and a trailblazer many times over. He was perhaps most groundbreaking, however, in the medium of film. The son of an escaped slave, Robeson managed to become a top-billed movie star during the time of Jim Crow America, headlining everything from fellow pioneer Oscar Micheaux's silent drama Body and Soul to British studio showcases to socially engaged documentaries, always striving to project positive images of black characters. Increasingly politically minded, Robeson eventually left movies behind, using his international celebrity to speak for those denied their civil liberties around the world and ultimately becoming a victim

Jonas Mekas is planning on releasing 365 short films this year, 1 a day. The first two are available here. - Sujewa