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

Looks interesting: YOU WONT MISS ME trailer from Ry Russo-Young on Vimeo .

Mike Tully (presently inactive filmmaker who is not a fan of shooting on DV, who is now running things - as far as I know - at the review site Hammer to Nail, who also blogs at indieWIRE, & who wrote a brief & positive review of Date Number One in '06, & a fellow Marylander who generally seems like a cool dude) attended the World Premiere of Indie Film Blogger Road Trip and wrote a review of the doc . There are several items in that review that I'd like to comment on. So here we go: "At its best, Sujewa Ekanayake’s Indie Film Blogger Road Trip is certain to go down as one of the more bizarre time capsules of life on early-21st Century Earth." Cool - life on Earth in early 21st century - right now - is pretty bizarre, so a film dealing with a new, early-21st Century thing like film blogging/a film blogging community, should reflect that reality. The doc, however, is very simple & conventional in its form & content (shots of people talking). It is i

Interesting (& somewhat amusing - in a very positive way) to observe Chuck's attempts to deal with & come to a final conclusion about a doc (Indie Film Blogger Road Trip) in which he is a subject. A good post to check out for people active in the media world - 'cause there are often several competing professional & social interests at play when we deal with movies, other media makers & institutions, & we ultimately have to try to navigate & find (hopefully) the best (beneficial to society at large or various communities that we are a part of & also self) route to get through the opportunities/demands that we face. So, check out Chuck working through such a situation here . From the post, the latest 2 updates: "Update 2: After a private conversation with a friend, I want to re-reconsider some of these comments. I still think the film needs work, and my understanding is that Sujewa is working on a stronger cut of the film (one that would addre

Two people who I consider to be the type of people who are a part of the target audience for IFBRT were at the flick's premiere last night : Princeton Holt - filmmaker/blogger, & Ryan Balas - also another filmmaker/blogger. The two are also very interested in DIY media making & distribution (& not just interested-but-waiting-around-for-a-Hollywood-payday as some inactive filmmakers/active bloggers I know, but in the middle of making & distributing several features & figuring out better ways to get the work done & out, create publicity, etc.). Here are some of their reactions to the event & the film itself, from One Way Community blog : "The film overall was informative, and I found myself literally taking notes of some of the film bloggers names who from their interviews, sounded like good people to read and to possibly send copies of our films to for review. An interview can be considered a successful one, if the viewer or listener takes notes fr

Spout blog's Christopher Campbell has a long review of Indie Film Blogger Road Trip , and the review poses many questions about the doc, & also presents a few items that I'd like to offer my opinion on, so, here goes: "Only a handful of people were in attendance for last night’s world premiere of blogger/filmmaker Sujewa Ekanayake’s new documentary Indie Film Blogger Road Trip at NYC’s Anthology Film Archives." There were about 20 people in attendance. Most I talked to found the doc to be interesting for various reasons (some will be writing about their takes on the doc soon, will post links here). It would of course have been nice to have more people at the show, but, the doc is a special interest project & thus the turnout was not a surprise & I am always glad to have even just 1 audience member at a screening (& have them enjoy the film - in the case of last night's IFBRT screening, most did - so, a successful event). "Because really, what

Just got a couple of out-of-town guests on their way (they came up for IFBRT premiere last night), & after I take a nap will post pics from the event last night at Anthology. Great show, great venue & staff, & thanks a lot to everyone who came out for the event (yes, including Mike Tully, check out his hilariously negative review of the flick here ), stayed for the Q & A. A March or April screening of IFBRT in NYC is in the works, will have details in a week or so. At this point there are also Maryland/DC, Massachusetts, & quite possibly Atlanta, GA screenings of the doc in the works for '09. More details as I get them. Anyway, AM nap time, be back. - Sujewa

Indie Film Blogger Road Trip World Premiere Tuesday, February 17, 2009 8 PM Anthology Film Archives 32 Second Avenue (@ 2nd Ave & 2nd Street) New York, NY 10003 ( map/directions , Subway directions: F & V trains to 2nd Avenue, walk two blocks North on 2nd Avenue to 2nd Street. #6 to Bleecker St., walk one block North on Lafayette, two blocks East on Bond St. (turns into 2nd St.) to 2nd Avenue. Bus directions: M15 to 3rd Street ) * For event info. contact Sujewa Ekanayake at wilddiner@aol.com or 240-354-3394 , and get updates regarding the event at: http://indiefilmbloggersmovie.blogspot.com/ $9 ($6 for Anthology members ) * Indie Film Blogger Road Trip description: In the feature length documentary Indie Film Blogger Road Trip independent filmmaker & blogger Sujewa Ekanayake ( Date Number One , DIY Filmmaker Sujewa blog ) travels to several U.S. East Coast cities in the Summer of 2008 and discusses the thriving world of indie film journalism on the web, related In

View Larger Map I've been to Moonstruck diner on 2nd Ave in East Village half a dozen times now, very happy with the place. Specially since it is open 24 hours & is very close to Anthology Film Archives. Having hung out a lot at Tastee Diner in Silver Spring in my youth, I am a big fan of diners. So, if you've got any recommendations for NYC diners, post 'em in comments, will check 'em out. - Sujewa

BEFORE DURING AFTER Photos Copyright 2009 Sujewa Ekanayake For more on the event, check out this post . - Sujewa

If spending many minutes at a time reading people attack & defend Mumblecore in various blogs, also contributing to the same discussion, is - on the diy filmmaker fun scale - a 1.5 (out of 10), then showing your movie at a new Brooklyn art gallery (where some people come out to see a previously unheard of movie on a Friday night) is at least an 8, maybe a 9. DETAILS The gallery - Aeon Logic - is four months old and is experimenting with showing movies. Actually today's DNO screening was experiment 1 & it was a success according to the gallery owner Rachael Afolabi (also I agree that it was a success - we ran out of good chairs - granted, there was only about 9 chairs (a new batch of chairs are on order), but I was expecting about 6 people at this relatively under-publicized event at a new screening location (i spent most of my publicity work energy on the IFBRT premiere on 2/17 , the more important of the two screening this month) - overall the flick had about 13 or so au

It's a free screening, get all the info. here & come celebrate the upcoming Day of Love (and by that I mean Valentines Day), DIY film style, in Brooklyn! Date Number One at Aeon Logic Art Gallery, Fri 2/13, 7 PM, FREE . - Sujewa

Aside from the few film critics who became filmmakers in the past, my generation of filmmakers - the blog generation of filmmakers - the many filmmakers who started blogs in order to promote their work and other work that they enjoy, & then ended up in the role of film critics or reviewers even for a short while - even for a short, unpaid while - may come to realize a couple of things. One would be: you can be a filmmaker and be a part of the world of the filmmaker, or you can be a film critic, but you can't do both well at the same time - or it is very difficult to do both at the same time. Because, if you honestly critique films by filmmaker friends of yours or other filmmakers that you may one day have to work with - some of those filmmaker friends of yours may not be friends after you've published your reviews. An easy - or simple - way to remain a good filmmaker is to not take on the work of film critics or reviewers. An easy or simple way to be a good film critic is t

For sheer spectacle, I've been following the comments at Glenn Kenny's post/article re: Joe Swanberg's movies (let me get my take on the films & the maker out of the way quickly: Swanberg is very productive, Mumblecore is a good way to generate publicity for low-budget/no-star movies, I am not a fan of KOTM or LOL, however, did somewhat enjoy HTTS - some characters had funny moments - I think that's about it - oh, also, it is cool that the M-core crowd has embraced Barry Jenkins - I am sure MfM benefited from it), anyway, this latest comment from AlexJones (at the end of PAGE 4!!!??? of comments) is kinda explosive/feels explosive ('cause it attacks many indie scene makers?), here's a part of it: "First, Matt Dentler rode the Mumblecore hype to a job at Cinetic Rights Management and needed to continue to generate this hype in order to legitimize his hiring and raise his profile with companies like Amazon. This year his replacement, Janet Pierson, has p

One Way Productions is releasing a basic/no-frills version of Cookies & Cream, Carter, & Uptown on 3/1 - more at One Way blog .

Week of Wonders blog asked me a few questions, James Lipton style, check it out here . Thanks for the interview WoW !