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

I am looking forward to The Last Jedi.  Here's a great, recent interview with Jedi director Rian Johnson at New York Times . Here's the trailer for The Last Jedi: I am also looking forward to making my movie Werewolf Ninja Philosopher this fall.  Here is an interview I did with Filmwax Radio about Werewolf movie and crowdfunding. Werewolf Ninja Philosopher is fundraising at IndieGoGo at the moment.  Check it out here , and if you dig it, support, share. Here's my pitch video for Werewolf Ninja Philosopher project: Werewolf Ninja Philosopher movie IndieGoGo pitch video from Sujewa Ekanayake on Vimeo .

Werewolf Ninja Philosopher movie lead actor Art Shrian * Help make this amazing movie happen! "Earlier this year, while I was producing a wild puppet sci-fi project called  Space Rabbit , I came up with a private detective comedy movie idea - about a character who has to investigate several show biz world murders in NYC.  Unlike in the regular world, in this version of NYC the following is true - art, indie, experimental, foreign filmmakers, and film critics, are the big entertainment world stars.  In the movie someone is killing art/indie filmmakers, and the city government cannot solve the crimes - so they call in a star private investigator to help them solve the mystery.  The private investigator they call on is a character named Werewolf Ninja Philosopher - a werewolf who has ninja skills - has fought and defeated evil ninjas in the past, and is also a character who teaches philosophy at NYU, and who uses his knowledge of philosophy to help people deal with

This can be seen as perhaps a critical post by some, so, let's get some basics out of the way first. I like both Kickstarter and IndieGoGo, for different reasons, different projects.  And I am glad that both platforms exist, along with all other crowdfunding platforms, and I hope all of them thrive and continue to serve their customers well. I have no official, professional direct relationship with either company (as in I do not work for either company, and I do not get paid from either company to promote them, but I do have personal accounts on each site for creating crowdfunding campaigns - just a regular user of the 2 sites).  I did however recently manage 3 campaigns on IndieGoGo (hired by individual campaigners to assist with their campaigns) - indie film or art film/foreign film related - and collectively those campaigns raised over $75,000 and allowed those projects to exist, come to life, move on to the next phase on the project. I have worked on Kickstarter cam

Check out the great interviews here . - S

The latest live video update, Indie Film Update From Brooklyn, ep #3 - The Iranian-American art/indie film "underground", including info on the work of  Amir Motlagh  (btw i keep looking at the top of the hill in front of me, some dudes started playing music after i started the video. so the lesson next time is not to face a hill, as my eyes may go up to scan the horizon, sorry about that distraction. but hey, the joy of these videos is that they are live, and one take, whatever happens, happens :) ) -  https://www.facebook.com/sujewa.ekanayake/videos/vb.539218365/10154705732928366/?type=3&theater

Check it out here -  https://www.pscp.tv/w/1YqGokaOLLNGv

Check it out here, a Facebook live video -  https://www.facebook.com/sujewa.ekanayake/videos/vb.539218365/10154701910048366/?type=3&theater About the video: " indie film news update from brooklyn - #1! (kind of an fb live video test  :)  ) subjects - split screens festival at ifc center,  Amir Motlagh 's indiegogo for his 2 new movies, breakthrough weekend update, werewolf ninja philosopher update, a bit about the rough cut of a short film by  Devin Negrete , & reflecting on fact that's it's the middle of 2017, still time to get a lot done this year  " :)

  A scene from The Deuce, featuring Maggie Gyllenhaal Well, I hear it's about the porn industry in NYC in the 1970s, but I only saw the amazing pilot episode of the show on Friday night at the brand new Split Screens Festival at the IFC Center, and the pilot deals with the story before the porn industry aspect kicks in.  In the pilot episode we get to see several characters in NYC in the early 1970s; a prostitute played by Maggie Gyllenhaal, a bartender played by James Franco (who also plays his gambling addicted twin brother), and several more prostitutes, pimps, and various other people in their orbit.  In the pilot episode we see how things are for these characters on a day to day basis, and generally it ain't pretty. This was the first time that I saw an HBO show episode on a movie theater screen.  That plus the production design of the show had me going "wow, this looks amazing, this really looks like NYC in the 1970s (as far as I can tell from visual document

Festival happens June 2-8 at IFC Center. Lots of amazing screenings and events for TV fans ahead. All info here .

June 2-8, at the IFC Center,  at Sixth Avenue & West 3rd Street in Greenwich Village . About the festival: " Split Screens celebrates the art and craft of TV. Reflecting a moment when television has never been more innovative or accomplished, the festival will showcase the best of our current golden age of scripted shows, with directors, producers, showrunners and cast appearing in person for in-depth discussions about making great TV. Split Screens will also premiere episodes of eagerly anticipated new shows, as well as spotlight the next generation of DIY online creators whose work is pushing the form and content of episodic shows in bold new directions."  More here -  http://www.splitscreensfestival.com/what-is-split-screens/ Festival coverage coming to this blog all week long. Click below to take a look at the amazing line up of screenings and events:

Check out the madness here :) Details in Updates.

  Jon Moritsugu screening his films at RAMIKEN CRUCIBLE gallery in NYC in 2016 From About page at Jon Moritsugu's website: Writer/director  JON MORITSUGU  has been making films since 1985. In 1989, Village Voice critic J. Hoberman called Moritsugu’s Brown University thesis short,  DER ELVIS , one of the “Top 50 films of the 80’s.” Since then, his features  MOD FUCK EXPLOSION ,  MY DEGENERATION ,  FAME WHORE ,  SCUMROCK ,  HIPPY PORN  and  PIG DEATH MACHINE  have scorched eyeballs worldwide from Sundance to MOMA to Cannes to the Guggenheim to Berlin to the Whitney to Toronto to name a few. In 1993, James Schamus (former CEO of Focus Features) produced Moritsugu’s television comedy,  TERMINAL USA , which aired nationwide on PBS.   Visit   http://jonmoritsugu.com/about/ for more on this amazing underground film legend! * Jon Moritsugu's 2012 Grammy nominated video for "no future shock" by TV ON THE RADIO: * Sujewa - Hello Jon, Nice to have y

It's a golden age for DIY filmmaking & distribution.  I define DIY filmmaking & distribution as one central artist - the director/producer/writer or the main filmmaker, or a group of artists - making films and making them available to interested audiences - specially feature length films - with or without help from Hollywood, large companies, the traditional film industry (relevant specially when done outside of the industry - or not letting lack of film industry help stop one's desire for making movies.)  It's as tough as ever to make a lot of money from independent filmmaking work, but, it is possible now to make and distribute your work relatively easily - compared to the first decade of the 2000s, the 1990s, the 1980s etc. Now a filmmaker can shoot a film on his or her phone or other easily available high quality image making devices such as DSLRs, camcorders, and then release the movie on Vimeo or YouTube or eventually Amazon, iTunes, perhaps even Netflix, st

* This campaign is raising money to finish and release the feature films THREE WORLDS and MAN. Those two films complete a project called THREE MARKS, TOO MANY SIGNALS. Filmmaker Amir Motlagh has created over 15 films to date. Motlagh's films are often fiction and documentary hybrids that examine modern life as lived by characters who are searching for meaning. Individual identity, family, assimilation, the past, creative struggles are some of the themes that Motlagh tackles in his work. THREE WORLDS is a unique, introspective drama that delves into a character's multiple perspectives in different points of space and time.   Time, history and his personal choices change the course of his existence.  THREE WORLDS is a drama using elements from science fiction to reveal a character trying to find his way out of a maze. MAN is a semi-scripted, slice of life story told in a fresh, experience centric style that explores a man’s relationship with friends and family

Amir Motlagh, from his film CANYON Filmmaker, actor, musician Amir Motlagh has directed over 15 films to date. Motlagh's films are often fiction and documentary hybrids that examine modern life as lived by creative characters - often Iranian-American artists, played by Motlagh. Individual identity, family, assimilation, the past, creative struggles are some of the themes that Motlagh tackles in his work. We spoke with him as he prepares to finish and release two new features - THREE WORLDS and MAN. The two new features and a visual album called CANYON (featuring music by Amir's band MIRS) make up a project called THREE MARKS, TOO MANY SIGNALS. knock. knock. (2007) from Amir Motlagh on Vimeo . Plain Us (2008) from Amir Motlagh on Vimeo . Khoobi (are you ok) - 2011 from Amir Motlagh on Vimeo . Still Lover (2003) from Amir Motlagh on Vimeo . DIY Filmmaker blog's Sujewa - Hello Amir.  Thanks for talking to DIY Filmmaker blog about your