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

Originally published 5/19/06 Flew in to Seattle yesterday morning w/ production manager/asstnt. producer extraordinaire Firtz Flad (also actor, he stars in Story # 4 in Date Number One - in the Air Quotes Woman segment), found Northwest Film Forum & my firend Keith's house, got lost for a while (of course, brand new city) but had a productive day. On the fun side this city & area is be-a-u-tiful. The Capital Hill area has a high quotent of indie & other potentially arts interested types walking around, lots of hot/cute/interesting looking women also, and the sun was out yesterday. Everyone at NWFF is supernice. The venue itself is awesome, ceilings like 20 feet tall. The two theaters that I am going to play in look good, comfy looking seats, big screens (for an indie venue). Glad I hooked up w/ NWFF. It's 10 AM on Fri, the day of the first two Seattle shows (7 PM & 9:30 PM at the smaller theater @ NWFF). I am taping my movie out to DV tapes right now, did some a

who did an excellent job helping me put on the Seattle 5/19 -21 shows. thanks allie & fritz! this photo taken on sat 5/20 in Seattle photo copyright 2006 sujewa ekanayake/wild diner films

Originally published 5/19/06 Of course I am excited to be at the Northwest Film Forum tonight 'cause my new feature Date Number One is opening there tonight for a whole weekend worth of shows. On top of that, my excitement has been taken up to 11 'cause John Cassavetes' film Love Streams will be opening tonight. And Calvin Johnson from K Records (and if my memory serves, from Beat Happening & other bands) will be playing music prior to the Love Streams 7 PM show tonight. !!!AWESOME!!!!!!! See all three attractions listed at the Northwest Film Forum front page. See ya at the theater if you are in Seattle! - Sujewa

Originally published 5/20/06 Re: Date Number One " Hilarious, with an amount of laughter that will leave your stomach feeling as if ninjas and Karate experts were kicking at it, but instead they were falling in strange love - and so was I " - Lisa Wardle, Seattle Audience Member for Date Number One at Northwest Film Forum 5/20/06 Sat

Originally published 5/21/06 Supercool underground filmmaker Jon Moritsugu came to watch the 7 PM show of Date Number One tonight in Seattle. Awesome! I am a big fan of Jon's DIY approach to filmmaking & distribution. Perhaps I'll do a mini-interview with him after the show. - Sujewa

On Sun 5/21/06 photo copyright 2006 sujewa ekanayake/wild diner films

Originally published 5/22/06 Last night at Northwest Film Forum, after Jon & Amy saw "Date Number One", I asked Jon how he liked it, and he said (and this is how it will be presented in the Date Number One promo material from now on): "I Loved It!" - Jon Moritsugu , film director "Scumrock", "Terminal USA", "Mod Fuck Explosion", etc. Thanks Jon & Amy for coming to the show!!! I did a brief video interview w/ them at NWFF. I'll post some of the content in text form (maybe video form, but most likely in text form) soon. Jon & Amy took a ferry from the island that they live in to come to the city to see my movie. Most awesome. - Sujewa

Alright, it has taken foreeevveerr but we are very close to having Date Number One available for purchase on DVD. I am going to set March 15 as the new deadline for DNO DVD availability. There is a screening of the movie that day in Kensington, so it may all work out very well. Since I barely got started with theatrical in '06, the DVD, for the time being, will be available in a limited basis - mostly through my website & a few local (DC area) retail stores & a couple of web retailers. And the DVD that will be available on 3/15 will be DNO DVD v1 (version 1) - with no extras, for $12. After all of this year's theatrical screenings (i am gonna try to do 100s of theatrical screenings in '07) & perhaps some fest screenings, I will release another version of the DVD - the version 2 - with oodles of extras, in '08. The reason being that I want the theatrical self-distribution story of the movie to be reflected in the DVD extras, and at this point it is way too so

L'Attente is a short film directed by Pittsburgh based filmmaker & blogger Lucas McNelly. I am a sucker for the faux-ealy French New Wave look & sound (b&w cinematography, jump cuts, interesting/"bad" audio), and for humor (also anything that has to do with coffee - the first film I made was a short called Fresh Coffee), so I liked L'Attente a lot. It is in French but you can understand the film even if you do not know that language 'cause it is mainly a silent movie/the main action/story does not seem to have much to do with the little dialogue in the movie. Check it out . - Sujewa

... & either way, I am cool w/ it. Having fully embraced "no" budget/"no" star production & "no" budget self-distribution, I am strangely indifferent, at the moment, to budgets & stars, in a good way: I would be totally cool with making my next feature for $50, or $5000 or $50K or $50 million (of course the more money we have the more we can pay ourselves). With just some of my friends or the biggest Hollywood stars & best H-wood crew money can buy. Either way I will still be self-distributing - either "no"/ultra-low budget/Date Number One style - 1 theatrical screening & 1 DVD sale at a time, or super high budget (if I can swing it) Passion or new Star Wars flicks or American Haunting style w/ a distributor for hire - 1000s of theaters at a time, w/ nationwide DVD availability. I feel this comfortable indifference to budgets & stars 'cause I know that the essential things that my movie will deliver: the story, the

Hmmmm. I can say that it was better than Factotum - in certain ways (although Factotum had a more interesting lead character & actor), I can say that. Other than that I will also say that all the characters are types, not further nuanced creations. Stranger Than Fiction is definitely not for me. I guess some people will like it/have liked it. I am glad I did not make that movie. I guess if I had to make that movie I would do it differently. Man, I should have picked up Chloe In The Afternoon. That movie might not be great either, but at least it may have been a little bit more interesting 'cause it takes place in France. Stranger Than Fiction was a pleasant waste of time for me. Good thing I had some interesting & interested-in-the-flick company, otherwise I would have turned the flick off if I was watching it by myself. I guess now I know what more to avoid in making movies, writing scripts. On the bright side, the film was shot well & the sound was good.

Sat 3/3 Update/temporary note of caution: Possible problem, for some filmmakers, with the Cinequest arrangement: a filmmaker who wants to remain anonymous told me that Cinequest wants long term exclusive rights for DVD distribution & that he heard from a couple of other filmmakers who are currently working with Cinequest that they were not happy with the arrangement. I'll try to figure out this weekend or early next week if Cinequest does require a long term exclusive DVD rights commitment before I permanently add those facts to this post. Some filmmakers may be OK with a long term exclusive DVD arrangement with a new distribution project, while many others may not be. And now, here is the original post from 3/2: 1 fest down, about 2499 to go :) It's about time that more festivals experimented with ways to make some cash for the filmmakers/tried to use their events to help filmmakers with distribution & revenue. It's a thing that is also in the best interest of the

Kelley Baker AKA The Angry Filmmaker will be supported in his spring tour by Filmmaker Magazine. Read all about it here . Congrats Kelley! & good luck with the spring tour. - Sujewa

I am adding the following links sections to the blog: Date Number One reviews, On DIY Film (my posts re: the subject of DIY production & self-distribution), Reviews (reviews I've written of indie films), Interviews. Maybe I'll think of a couple more sections. Should take a few days to add all the links to these new sections. Scroll down & check out the right hand side of the blog for the links. :: INDIE FEATURES Update: Blogger has put a hold on postings at Indie Features until they can make sure that the blog is not a spam blog. Pretty weird, not sure what that's all about. Get yer act together Blogger, IF is a legit blog, loved by many. Hopefully the blog will be fully operational once more very, very soon. - Sujewa

Check out all the details here . Sounds like an excellent idea. And here is a bit of the post: " I've been trying to think of ways to make the no-budget filmmakers who, in my opinion, are an extremely important niche in the indie world, all that more viable to the larger film community. One method I've come up with is using the internet to write about them in much of the same way I'd write about the latest release from Focus Features. This serves two purposes: 1) it provides much needed exposure (even if it is only a little bit) for filmmakers who work very hard with little to no recognition, and 2) it's a critical voice by which they can get a sense of just how their film plays to someone who isn't inclined to dole out empty praise or criticize needlessly[1]. And being a no-budget filmmakers myself, I figure shining as much light on others as possible has to have some benefits, in terms of karma." And once again, here's the post . - Sujewa