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Kurt Cobain About A Son on Sundance Channel tonight

Read all about the event from the director himself, here . If you get the Sundance Channel & you have not seen About A Son yet & you are remotely interested in indie/punk/90's rock, lives of artists, & very creative filmmaking, check it out. Sundance Channel's page for the film . Their description: "Documentary filmmaker A. J. Schnack (GIGANTIC: A TALE OF TWO JOHNS) breaks nearly every established rock documentary convention in this "deeply moving" (Village Voice) examination into the short life of Kurt Cobain. The voice of the Byronic grunge rock icon is heard in excerpts from revealing interviews recorded a little more than a year before his 1994 suicide. Cobain is heard ruminating about fame, drugs, his childhood and his band as impressionistic images of locales from Cobain's life in the Pacific Northwest provide a visual counterpoint." Congrats to Team Son on the SC premiere! - Sujewa :: ADVERTISEMENT Al Maiorino -

Re: festivals representing the collective judgment of the independent film community

At this blog post , IndiePix's Bob Alexander says: " Question: If a festival can’t pay a filmmaker, then why are festivals important? Answer: Because they represent the collective judgment of the independent film community." (thanks A.J. Schnack for the link to Bob's post) But do festivals really represent "the collective judgment of the independent film community"? I would have to say no. Because, the independent film community is, by my definition (and this is probably a definition that most people involved in indie films to some significant degree can agree with) people who purchase/watch indie movies (at theaters, on DVD, at festivals, etc.), people who make indie movies, people who distribute indie movies, people who promote indie movies, people who organize film festivals and other indie film screening events, people who criticize or otherwise write about, discuss indie movies. That is a lot of people; several hundred thousand people, at least, in the

New Date Number One screening dates, DVD info. by the end of this month

I am working on setting up screenings of the new version of Date Number One . Also the DVD (will be selling the DVD just from/through my websites/mail order until all the '08 & possibly part of '09 screenings of the film are done, after that will try to sell the DVD through all open avenues). I am going to try to make the DVD available for purchase at some point this month. That is the latest re: that film; more DNO news by the end of this month/June. - Sujewa

All the Vermeers in New York review at NYT in '92

Still have not seen this movie; was doing some web browsing re: Vermeer, found this New York Times review from '92, check it out here . A little bit from the review, the basic plot of the movie: "One afternoon, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Mark observes Anna as she observes his favorite Vermeer, a portrait of a pensive young woman gazing out from the canvas. Struck by Anna's resemblance to the woman in the picture, which is not all that pronounced, Mark begins to pursue her. He pays no attention to her lack of enthusiasm and rudeness. He sees in her something of the healing serenity he associates with Vermeer. She sees him as a convenience and borrows $3,000. " Read the rest here . - Sujewa

Photos from the 5/30-6/1/08 NYC trip

It was my girlfriend Amanda's birthday last weekend, and she had never visited NYC before, so we took a trip. Had a great time. On the film front got to visit Pioneer Theater, Brooklyn International Film Festival, and hung out with Brian "The Film Panel Notetaker" Geldin, Mumblecore Erin/Erin Sherer , and Marc "Frownland/Yeast" Raybin . Among other attractions, Amanda visited the Folk Art Museum, and she was pretty excited about that. At the end of the trip she said she loved NYC. - Sujewa

will have the short film line up for the Fri 6/27 CCM screening by this weekend

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

Nice, the revenue sharing future is already here for some indie filmmakers & festivals

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

Student Filmmakers

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

Hmmm, I guess hard core fans of the later seasons of Sex and the City will really dig the movie

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

Indie Fabulous NYC blog partially open/under construction

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

June - December '08

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

Saw Able Danger at Brooklyn International Film Festival 11

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

Full Movie - SNEAK PREVIEW - Cosmic Disco Detective Rene And The Mystery Of Immortal Time Travelers

NEW - COSMIC DISCO DETECTIVE RENE (2023) - TRAILER!

The Secret Society For Slow Romance (2022) - available to rent as a new release starting January 1

Werewolf Ninja Philosopher at Vimeo VOD

Reading Material

Indie Film Blogger Road Trip