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

waiting to take a look at 3 more shorts tomorrow, after that we'll have the list of all the shorts that will play at the Capital City Microcinema screening on Fri June 26. currently 4 CCM screenings are planned - 1 for each month in June, July, August, & September. The July, August, Sept. shows will be of features ( Texas Snow in August ). screenings will be happening in Kensington, MD, at Kensington Row Bookshop . more info. very soon; here and at the CCM site/blog . - sujewa

Read about it here . Congrats to the next President of the US (most likely, I think) & all his supporters. - Sujewa

According to filmmaker, blogger & indie film industry developer (that's a new title that I just created for A.J. - a small gesture of recognition & appreciation; since he worked hard & pulled together the Cinema Eye awards ) A.J. Schnack, an item (revenue sharing between fests & filmmakers; including screening fees) I've always (for the last couple of years at least) seen as something that will be common practice in the near future (5 years?) is already happening at some film festivals; from A.J.'s An Annual State of the Industry Post and Some Festival Advice for Filmmakers post: "PART TWO - SCREENING FEES The not-so-secret secret of the festival world is that someone is probably being paid, even if you aren't. Fees vary so greatly that it's difficult to come up with a standard, but many films are paid $500, $1000 or more to screen at fest. Some even split box office revenues with the festival - a nice incentive for filmmakers to work hard to g

Since new gear & program updates come on the market every few months, and also new methods of doing business/production/distribution get adopted by the scene periodically, indie filmmakers are perpetual students; there's always something to learn. So, studentfilmmakers.com might be one good source to see what kind of learning tools are available when you are trying to master Final Cut Express HD, etc. Thanks Hollywood Is Talking for the link. - Sujewa

Partially driven by Kurt Loder's review of Sex and the City movie , I went and checked it out today. There were a couple of good moments in it. Good cinematography as always/as seen in the TV show. But the verve & freshness of some of the early episodes of the TV series is pretty much not present in the movie. However, since I am not a part of the target audience for the movie, and tons of people are checking out the movie, according to media reports, I guess the movie is a marketing & sales success. Good for the business side of things, but I personally was not entertained the same way I was by some of the early episodes of the TV series (me & my girlfriend did laugh at the movie a lot, which is not - I assume - the kind of response the makers of the movie necessarily wanted). I found the Diane Arbus line to be funny, but no one else in the Silver Spring Majestic 20 theater did (or at least I didn't hear them laugh out loud). All in all, kind of

When I was in NYC this past weekend it occurred to me that it would be cool & useful for there to be a site that lists all or a lot of indie film events that are happening in the city (screenings, fests, other relevant events) so that both visitors & locals can easily figure out what's happening on a given day or week & explore further to see if a certain event is something they want to check out. So I started the Indie Fabulous NYC blog. I hope to have it be fully operational (at the moment it is not unlike the partially constructed Death Star of the Star Wars movies) in a month or so; w/ new stuff being added on a regular basis in the coming days. - Sujewa

Get all the info. here . Movie is coming to theaters from Magnolia Pictures this fall.

Between this month - June - and December 15 or so, I need to get a DVD out, do some screenings, & make a new movie or two; so, I think a lot of my blogging for the next few months will happen, as things get done, at: Wild Diner Films blog Date Number One '08 site/blog Actress Movie site/blog Capital City Microcinema site/blog With major items being linked to from this blog or being mentioned at this blog in some length. When the weather gets cold & or when things slow down for the year end holidays, I should be back blogging a lot once again at this blog; covering all kinds of indie film & other stuff. Of course will blog about SilverDocs '08 when the fest happens later this month. Other than that, will be busy with lots of WDF stuff while the weather is good. See ya around. - Sujewa

Here is the trailer for the new film Able Danger; pretty good as entertainment (as for the 9-11 conspiracy angle, nothing I have not heard before - a lot of smoke; but a good starting off point to an at times campy but generally engaging noir type drama), great photography; saw that movie at the opening night of the 11th Brooklyn International Film Festival - at a great/very interesting venue called the Lyceum, on Fri 5/30 night. Able Danger trailer: - Sujewa

be back on mon.

Got this today; good news, Matt is back as a critic (though not in print), & the indiefilmbloginterwebcosmicbrain just regained the bit of intelligence & soul matter lost from Matt's departure a few weeks ago, very cool: "Hi, folks-- Although I have more or less quit print journalism to focus on filmmaking -- and will be shooting a science fiction feature in Dallas this summer -- I intend to continue being a critic. From now on, the work will just take a different form. The first example can be found at the link below. http://www.thehousenextdooronline.com/2008/05/ten-steps-away-at-death-house-door.html I intend to do a lot of these video essays once I perfect the format and get up to speed. They will be posted to YouTube and other Internet video sites; they will also be featured on the film and TV criticism blog The House Next Door, which I founded in 2006 and recently turned over to my friend Keith Uhlich: http://www.thehousenextdooronline.com/ If you would like to

Update 7/20/08 : working on 3 movies (Indie Film Bloggers, Actress, and Date Number One DVD release), and will be busy with distribution on those next year, so, producing a film fest is out for '09, perhaps later/at some other year. I have read, at some point far back in one of my history of art classes, of painters putting on group shows ( example ); basically several painters get together, exhibit their work, with all the attendant press, details (food, music, etc.) in tow, and also sell their work at this event. Maybe this idea can be adapted to the real indie film world because; - film festivals, most of them (or at least many of them), as we know them now, draw significant attention & attendance from the general public but are not events whose primary mission it is to enable filmmakers to receive money from the public directly, at the event, for their work (either from screenings or DVD sales) The event could include indie filmmakers as the primary organizers but significa

A blog comment conversation at Spout blog re: the value of Sex and the City movie made me think of Sullivan's Travels (1941). Here's a clip:

This year marks the first appearance of the Austin Asian American Film Festival . From the fest's site: "After years of hard work, the Austin Asian American Film Foundation has arrived. Our unique foundation promises to bring the best in Asian and Asian American cinema to Austin. Texas may seem like an odd location for an Asian film foundation, but we are the fastest growing minority in an already lively and vibrant Asian community. We are supported by the University of Texas, Austin Film Society and many Asian organization. This October we are proud to present: The 1st Annual Austin Asian American Film Festival will be held on October 9-12th, 2008. Our four day event will have exciting screenings, thought provoking panels, great parties and many filmmakers in attendance. This year we are proud to announce our festival will be held at the Alamo Drafthouse. Recently voted “Best Theatre in America”, the Alamo takes our festival to the next level!" I have a perhaps a difficu

It's that time of the year again folks; the "sleepy"? town of Silver Spring, MD turns into a pretty gigantic celebration of documentary films, doc filmmaking, & doc filmmakers. I'll post links to all my posts about SilverDocs '08 on this page, so that we may locate them with ease in the future. 6/27 update : This page is missing a few links, will add them next week. In the meantime, click on the blog's title, go to the top of the blog & scroll down to see a few SilverDocs entries. SilverDocs 2008 posts North American Premiere of Generation 68 at SilverDocs - 5/28/08 SilverDocs '08 films - 5/28/08 - Sujewa