DIY Filmmaker (1 - DIY/indie/arthouse Filmmaker Sujewa Blog - 53 FILMS IN 53 MONTHS PROJECT)

* Starting January 2020 (probably around mid-January) there will be several posts related to SLOW ROMANCE movie daily on this blog.  The goal is to post at least 3,000 blog posts about SLOW ROMANCE movie during 2020 at this blog.  About various aspects of the movie, links to press coverage, and posts about ideas related to the movie - for further exploration.

Check out the article here - list of 30 experimental films -  https://mubi.com/notebook/posts/an-experimental-decade-the-features-30-films-of-a-fortunate-man

Read all about it here -  https://www.sundance.org/blogs/news/2020-new-frontier-announced-festival

"Ian and Sujewa look at Jim Jarmusch's 1989 slow-cinema masterpiece MYSTERY TRAIN, and catch up on Sujewa's forthcoming film SLOW ROMANCE. Also, the guys get into indie-film financing, race, and how MYSTERY TRAIN might just be the key to world peace!" - from the YouTube page -

"Actor/Filmmaker Amir Motlagh joins Ian and Sujewa to talk about SLOW ROMANCE, navigating the indie film world, and that minor "Is/Isn't" controversy surrounding Monsieur Scorsese!" - from YouTube page -

https://letterboxd.com/baranbozdag/list/syndromes-and-21th-century/

Let's make some movies!  From Nov 2019 until end of Dec 2020 I am going to try to make several movies - under the project name Brooklyn Microbudget Features.  Basically no budget/ultra low budget/DIY movies.  #1 in the series is Werewolf Ninja Philosopher .  #2 will be SLOW ROMANCE - now in production, expected to be completed at the end of Nov 2019.  Should be interesting.  More info, clips, stills, trailers as things get done. - Sujewa

Experimental film by Jean-Luc Godard.  2014 Cannes Film Festival Jury Prize winner.  A story of a dog, wrapped in an essay film about philosophical questions, and questions about history, also a story about one or more couples, with nudity, filmed in multiple video formats, with beautiful shots of several places in Europe - specially one of a ship on a body of water.  A challenging and interesting movie.  Filmed by a crew of 3 (including the director). Goodbye To Language from kinolorber on Vimeo .

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From TIFF YouTube page: "Featuring films by Philipp Fleischmann, Charlotte Prodger, Mike Gibisser, and Pedro Neves Marques.Structures of display and containment, both physical and figurative, form the core of this programme, whose works — by turns fluid, cryptic, coded, and diaristic — refute many binaries: interior/exterior, personal/public, lion/lioness." Read the rest here -  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_MRkZymXK0

 * From TIFF YouTube page - "Bookended by stunning astral compositions, this programme explores the elemental as informed by myths, legends, dreams, and cosmic forces. With films by Kevin Jerome Everson, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Sky Hopinka, Britany Gavelly & Ken Linehan, Jodie Mack, Lina Rodriguez, and Malena Szlam."

 

Get all info, tickets here -  https://www.facets.org/cinematheque/films/july2019/werewolf.php From the page - " Werewolf Ninja Philosopher   is a deadpan minimalist, underground noir comedy which succeeds by its stylistic audacity and peculiar rhythms that recall the early work of Jim Jarmusch. Since the werewolf ninja philosopher is also an expert martial artist, his philosophical outlook makes it clear that there is much that is strange, but nothing that surpasses man in strangeness.   Werewolf Ninja Philosopher   is sardonic and witty as well as an affectionate homage of the detective genre, with easily identifiable visual and narrative conventions that any gumshoe would enjoy, even if he is a werewolf. Directed by Sujewa Ekanayake, U.S.A., 2018, 72 mins. FACETS FILM DIALOGUE: Filmmaker Sujewa Ekanayake will be here for Q&A after all of the screenings Friday, July 19–Monday, July 22. Lead actor Art Shrian Tiwari will be here for Q&A after all of th...

By Sujewa Ekanayake I discovered Bill Arceneaux 's work after reading two reviews (at Letterboxd , at Neaux Reel Idea ) he wrote about my new movie Werewolf Ninja Philosopher .  Werewolf is a movie for art/indie - real indie/foreign movie fans - and takes a good understanding of noir movies, art house cinema, NYC underground movies for someone to fully enjoy it - and by reading his writing it was obvious that Arceneaux knew the references in Werewolf.  Plus Arceneaux is a relatively accessible film reviewer ( @billreviews on Twitter ) and he seeks out new films and filmmakers that interest him - qualities that are useful for real indie/DIY filmmakers who often do their own distribution and publicity work.  Arceneaux is deep into art films, mainstream films, Jim Jarmusch movies (with a book on Down By Law on the way) and he is an enthusiastic supporter of the New Orleans film scene.  He is working on starting a website that will cover film screenings happenin...

Buy tickets here . Filmmaker officially In-Person for the 6/21 - 7 PM show, 6/22 - 7 PM show, 6/23 - 5 PM show - for Intros and Q & As after the shows.  Filmmaker may also be at the theater for various other shows.  Informal discussions about the film and filmmaking, after shows, may be possible - at the theater or nearby. Trailer - Werewolf Ninja Philosopher 2018 trailer from Sujewa Ekanayake on Vimeo . About the film - from  https://www.sujewa.com/werewolf.html  - About the Movie ​In WEREWOLF NINJA PHILOSOPHER someone is killing art house filmmakers in NYC. The City calls on Werewolf Ninja Philosopher - a werewolf who is a ninja, a philosopher, and a private detective - to help stop the killings. A deadpan, slow cinema, minimalist, black & white, NYC art/indie/DIY/underground werewolf noir comedy by Sujewa Ekanayake (Director, Writer, Cinematographer, Editor). Starring Art Shrian Tiwari as Werewolf. Also featuring Kirsten Dwyer, Alia Lora...

Black and white films are making a very slow comeback.  I chose black and white for my film Werewolf Ninja Philosopher .  Inspired in part by Frances Ha (2012) - and even earlier films Stranger Than Paradise (1984) and Down By Law (1986).  Here are several excellent recent films that have used black and white cinematography. - Sujewa * Frances Ha (2012)   * The Woman Who Left (2016) * Lover for a Day (2017) * Season Of The Devil (2018) * Roma (2018) * Werewolf Ninja Philosopher (2018) Werewolf Ninja Philosopher 2018 trailer from Sujewa Ekanayake on Vimeo . * Cold War (2018)

Check it out at Film Threat . From the review: "The script by director Sujewa Ekanayake works well, especially if one knows noir tropes very well. The gag about (almost) every woman who Werewolf encounters trying to get to know him better is a fun play on the sexually charged banter that infuses the most famous hardboiled detective stories. I for one found the idea of a Celebrity Crimes Unit existing to be hysterical and happily, the punchline is not overused." Read the rest here .

"It took 18 years for a collector couple to build a state-of-the-art home for their one-of-a-kind collection, with the architects Herzog & de Meuron. Now they can slow down and watch." - read the article here .

Radio Dreams from SYNERGETIC on Vimeo .

Factory Award Presentation to Andy Warhol from Ms. Kianga on Vimeo .

By eric anthamatten @eAnthamatten on Twitter The werewolf exists somewhere between man and wolf. The ninja exists somewhere between the light and the shadows. The philosopher exists somewhere between the lie and the truth. In this liminal intersection, a werewolf that is a ninja that is a philosopher searches for a serial killer, a sadistic murderer who targets art filmmakers. Like its title, Werewolf Ninja Philosopher (2018) is a hybrid of hybrids, part noir mystery, part absurdist comedy, part cinephile fetish. The name alone is enough to conjure a whole interesting set of possible stories and worlds, and like a good philosophy text, WWNP invokes a series of questions: How did the werewolf get to Brooklyn? Why is he here? Where is he going? Is he as ancient as the philosophers he studies? Did he walk alongside Aristotle? Did he train under Musashi? Was he once an assassin? Who did he kill? Did he kill? Will he kill again? Why is he trying to stop the killi...

Song From the Forest from First Pond on Vimeo .

For indie/DIY filmmakers Vimeo VOD is one of the best ways to release their films to the world.  So I will be going through Vimeo VOD's collection of films from time to time and will be posting links to good indie films (films I like basically, or films that look good to me) at this blog.  Let's start things off with some Jonas Mekas films from Vimeo VOD. Jonas Mekas - Sleepless Night Stories from Re:Voir Video on Vimeo . * Jonas Mekas - Guns of the Trees from Re:Voir Video on Vimeo . * Jonas Mekas - Out-Takes from the Life of a Happy Man from Re:Voir Video on Vimeo . *

By early March we'll have more info.  Indie film screenings in NYC.

Joans Mekas has died.  He lived a long time - 96 years - and made a lot of movies (he once said that he shot video on a daily basis) - and championed underground and avant-garde cinema, and inspired several generations of filmmakers and other artists.  Among other achievements he was one of the founders of Anthology Film Archives . Mekas is a great source of inspiration for indie filmmakers.  He was often a one person crew, shooting video in available light, using things and people around him as his subjects - and he delivered moving, poetic movies. Here is an example of Mekas's work: * One about World Trade Center: * And another one - a long walk in NYC: * Here is a Q & A session with Mekas: * From the New York Times : "A Lithuanian immigrant who, with a younger brother, Adolfas, arrived in New York City in 1949 speaking little English, he became within a handful of years an effective spokesman for avant-garde film. (Adolfas, wh...