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Link to GreenCine Daily's "Warhol. UK." post

DIY Filmmaker Andy Warhol Weekend blog-a-thon continues: here's the opening paragraph from an '07 post by David Hudson re: an Andy Warhol films retrospective that happened in the UK (nice to see that David had linked back then to a post I did about the retrospective - ! it's some kind of a web links time machine yo! ): " "Once upon a high time Andy Warhol 's films were a revolution," recalls Glenn O'Brien in the Times of London. "I was a college student in the late 60s. I had been educated by John Ford , Howard Hawks , Frank Capra , Preston Sturges , but the films of urgent interest were those of Federico Fellini , Jean-Luc Godard and Warhol. I remember sitting through a whole evening's showings of Warhol's Lonesome Cowboys . It's hard to imagine today, but back then a Warhol film was a glimpse of a new world, a strange, weird, compelling, funny, scary world. Warhol film was for the initiated, and so it was also initiatory." V

Chelsea Girls review at The Screengrab

And here's a link to a review for the DIY Filmmaker Andy Warhol Weekend blog-a-thon. From The Screengrab's Review By Request of Chelsea Girls : "Warhol called them his Superstars, but in their “natural” habitat of the Chelsea (with its bohemian mien and Spartan décor) they feel much more like a pack of strays that Warhol took in off the streets. Perhaps that’s why they were so widely embraced by so many young people of the time, including John Waters, who has spoken fondly of the times he drove up to New York from Baltimore to catch the latest Warhol film." Read the rest here . - Sujewa

DIY Filmmaker Andy Warhol Weekend

Things are kind of dull & gray in the real indie blog world (the world of blogs that cover real indie films - which is made up of like 4 blogs i think :), so, this weekend is a good one to do some posts about a well known, sometimes hated (his films are sometimes hated is what I mean), controversial in his time & maybe still DIY filmmaker - Andy Warhol. Quality of his movies aside, as an interesting element of the recent & relevant past both Warhol & his films (& the methods by which he made & distributed them - not unlike the methods used by contemporary DIY filmmakers - self funding, using friends as actors, self-distribution - to mention just a few shared traits) are important. Anyway, to kick things off the right way, here is a little bit from a gushing note from a Warhol fan (note is about Warhol art overall, not specifically his films, but we'll use it anyway - I like the tone) - from Zing Magazine's article Andy Warhol: Taidehalli * Helsinki, Fin

Craig Mazin's post The Problem With Film Criticism

Is film criticism a service & a product that is in the process of being re-designed to be useful to current film & related media consumers & new trends in media consumption? Let's hope so. In order to prep for the 4/18 discussion re: state of film criticism in Atlanta (the event has recently added two new panel members - Gil Robertson & Noralil Ryan Fores) I am doing some research. Stumbled onto the recent The Problem With Film Criticism post by Craig Mazin at The Artful Writer blog . From the post: " It’s just as likely your taste will not intersect with those of the film critics as it will. And since they often disagree with each other anyway, who needs ‘em? You could use one of the grading aggregators like Rotten Tomatoes or Metacritic, but again…what’s the real value there? For instance, some movies get a 50 on Metacritic because most critics find the film mediocre. But some movies get a 50 because half the critics loved the movie and half hated it. Diffe

IFBRT & DNO availability update

- Indie Film Blogger Road Trip (2009): Indie Film Blogger Road Trip will be available to view through Atlanta Film Festival's site at some point before 4/18 . Will post a note when IFBRT is on the ATLFF site. IFBRT will also be available to view through Blip.TV starting in May. Also, anyone who wants to buy a homemade DVD of IFBRT can send me a check or money order for $10 (make it out to Sujewa Ekanayake) to: Wild Diner Films 10408 Montgomery Ave. Kensington, MD 20895 (mail will be forwarded to Brooklyn eventually, but I am still working in both MD & NYC, so the MD address is still good/will always be good due to forward). At some point before the middle of this year I should have some factory made IFBRT DVDs for sale. * Date Number One (2006, 2008): The Date Number One DVD will FINALLY be available for purchase in early May (it was worth the wait, the current cut is far better than the one that premiered in May of '06). Will post up more info. on buying that DVD on

On the bright side, IFC did get my $6

Just fast forwarded through most of Alexander the Last. Nicely shot. Good sound. There's some small time grief in there somewhere. Justin Rice & that actress from Happiness are interesting to watch for a while even though there do not seem to be actual, even partially developed, characters or anything plot related for the characters to do. Maybe it's a generational thing or liking fictional narrative movies where characters know they want to do something and then they try to do it (no matter how small their goal is & no matter how "uninteresting" their lives are - Stranger Than Paradise is a good example) - whatever - or maybe it's the lack of exterior shots or lack of transitions that indicate the passing of time - whatever it is I am just not able to connect with Swanberg movies (and this is coming from someone who once made a movie that took place entirely in a living room made to look like a diner using bedsheets & liked the results enough to show

Cookies & Cream review at Rogue Cinema

While we wait for Soderbergh's The Girlfriend Experience , check out another movie about a sex worker - this one is a real indie - Cookies & Cream ( available now on DVD ). Here is an excerpt from a recent review of C & C at Rogue Cinema : "The story focuses on Carmen, an adult film actress. Carmen's life isn't what one might expect from someone in the industry. She has a daughter, does not have a promiscuous sex life and rarely parties. However, like many women, she is looking for someone to care for her. She keeps looking but coming up short as so many guys seem interested in her for all the wrong reasons. She hooks up with Johnathan at the beginning of our film, who knows full and well what she does for a living but continually looks to press her into doing things she doesn't want to do. He expects sex from her early on in the relationship due to what he has seen from her in the movies, and after one night of pulling a guilt trip on her for not putting

A tale of two Girlfriend Experiences

Looks like there are two movies called Girlfriend Experience - this one , and the upcoming one directed by Steven Soderbergh . I've seen the Soderbergh one being called The Girlfriend Experience on some sites (actually I am pretty sure that - TGE - is the official title of Soderbergh's flick), so maybe that'll help a tiny bit with differentiating between the two. So, maybe a lucky break for the makers of the other GE movie, some people will probably pick it up/check it out thinking it's the Soderbergh movie - and they might like it.

Harmony & Me trailer

Looks, visually (or did I get that impression by reading about it? not sure) like Funny Ha Ha but this movie looks like it is actually funny - check out the trailer: * Read more about the flick at The Daily .

Interview with The Limits of Control producers Stacey Smith and Gretchen McGowan

From Static Multimedia . Here's a taste: " How much of a logistical challenge was it, making this movie in Spain? Gretchen McGowan: We were north and south, east and west - nearly everywhere except Barcelona. I've worked in some challenging locations including Jordan, Vietnam, and Costa Rica. But our production services company, the Madrid-based Calle Cruzada, helped to make these country-wide company moves seamless and they assembled an excellent crew for each location. Stacey Smith: It was the most logistically challenging of Jim's films that I've worked on; they tend to be more contained, and less populated. We don't tend to go shoot in airports and train stations, nor do we usually have a helicopter, in a Jim Jarmusch film. [laughs] That was a surreal day. GM: It was the only black helicopter in all of Spain; we had to fly it down from Basque country." Read the rest of the interview at Static Multimedia .

Neo-Neo Realism vs. Mumblecore

Well, Marshal Fine's article is the first that I've seen by a critic that is not ecstatic about Goodbye Solo, and, AND, he says he finds Mumblecore movies more interesting than Neo-Neo Realist movies. Here is the controversial paragraph: "But that's a trademark of this neo-neo-realism. These movies are not about much of anything; no one says much of anything; and no one does much of anything. Say what you will about the so-called mumblecore school of filmmaking - with its slapdash aesthetic and endless self-regarding conversations - but at least those movies seem to have something on their minds, beyond creating a mood." Read the rest of Fine's article at Huffington Post . This is April Fool's Day, so, there is the possibility that Fine's article is less than sincere. - 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