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

Sounds like the Pioneer theater in East Village closed this weekend. Will collect links for posts & stories re: that story here. E.V. Indie Theater Rides Into the Sunset - New York Magazine Pall Cast over East Village as Pioneer Theater closes - Week of Wonders If you see any stories on the web re: Pioneer closing, post links in Comments. Thanks! Later on Pioneer! Thanks for 8 years or so of movies! - Sujewa :: ADVERTISEMENT http://farzadrostami20.blogspot.com  - Farzad Rostami 20 :: http://farzadrostami19.blogspot.com  - Farzad Rostami 19 :: http://farzadrostami18.blogspot.com - Farzad Rostami 18 :: http://farzadrostami17.blogspot.com  - Farzad Rostami 17 :: http://farzadrostami16.blogspot.com  - Farzad Rostami 16 :: http://farzadrostami15.blogspot.com  - Farzad Rostami 15 :: http://farzadrostami14.blogspot.com  - Farzad Rostami 14 :: http://farzadrostami13.blogspot.com...

Halloween is a good time to be in NYC. Saw a lot of hot costumes on the subway last night. Went looking for the diner on Broadway/near Malcolm X this mo-noon (morning for me, afternoon for everyone else), discovered that they were closed. So ended up at a cafe/bar/antique store called Goodbye Blue Monday - nice place, pretty good chicken wraps, & they've got net access. Oh, almost forgot, on the way to the diner met a lady who is fixing up a place to open up an art gallery/performance space - said she's down for showing movies too. Watching the blogger doc & working on the script for the next fiction feature later today - low key & productive day in Brooklyn, should be fun. The quality of the sunlight & the temperature are very nice here today. - Sujewa

Since movies - features - can be made for $0 to million$ - I don't think it's healthy for me to set up a specific $ standard (as was mentioned in this post ) to meet before embarking on a new project (reminds me of the not very productive 16 MM era - ah the sweet sweet wasted nineties :). Maybe my real thinking was that it would be nice to have a whole bunch of money around when I am making & distributing my next fiction feature so that there will be greater flexibility - more room to get things done well, pay bills early, etc. So, the plan from that post is still on - raise $s & put it aside for film projects - but - the filmmaking track will be independent from the overall financial life track - unless of course I get the deep urge to make a period epic or something (which i do not see happening any time soon) - or some such project that absolutely requires a lot of money to get started on. Anyway, work (mostly writing at the moment) on the next project is happening, ...

Well, not so little - SilverDocs wants you to submit your doc to SilverDocs '09 , go here for the info. You should do it, among other things, if you get in, it would be a good excuse to come visit the DC area (& perhaps hang out with the new prez & vp team! - hopefully this one ). - Sujewa

So, moving a couple of steps away from "no" budget filmmaking on my next project - a fiction feature (the Actress story will be a part of it, overall the next feature is about several young travelers - without giving too much away before the script is done) - it will still be an ultra-low budget project but I would like the luxury of working on it full time so that I can 1) get it made very well, and 2) not take forever to make it (having a FT job doing something else for $s & then making films on the side results in the films taking a long time to finish). I do not think it will be too difficult to raise $200K. That's 1000 sources providing $200 each or 200 sources providing $1000 each, or some other combination similar to those formulas. One of the up sides of having a $200K budget will be that I will be able to pay everyone who works on the movie, and not be in personal debt by the time the film is completed. The $200K budget includes making & marketing a sign...

Too much to do in DC/Kensington today, will not be going to Brooklyn, so, the little house screening of the blogger doc will have to wait 'till next weekend - perhaps on Sat 11/1 - will have info. towards the middle of next week for those who are interested.

SAT 10/25 Early AM Update: Will not be able to go to Brooklyn today, so, the screening will have to happen next weekend. Stay tuned. (here's the original post, no longer valid) If all the 2 Do items in front of me at the moment get done properly tonight & tomorrow, I should be watching my new doc Indie Film Blogger Road Trip in Brooklyn this Sat 10/25 eve/night @ a friend's/my temp house. Since most of the NYC bloggers featured in the doc are from Brooklyn, I think this is in some way very appropriate. Anyway, if you are interested in attending this little event, let me know. - Sujewa

Here's my comment re: SpoutBlog's post Does Ballast Really Deserve a Backlash? In that question lies another question - is it acceptable for a director to make a film about people who belong to another social/ethnic/political/economic/"racial" group? Here's what I said about it: I don’t see any problem with a person from one group making a work of art/entertainment about a person or people from another social/religious/political/national/ethinic/”race”/whatever group. We (humans) have been doing it for thousands of years. Some do it well, others don’t. But either way, it’s alright to do. I thought Gandhi was well done - not that I am an expert on the life & times of Gandhi - but, as a movie goer - what I saw & heard seemed like a good reflection of what I knew about Gandhi, even though the movie was made by a non-Indian & “white”, British director. So, it is possible, I think, for a person to make a good movie about a person or a group of people fro...

In Battlestar Galactica the main characters face enormous challenges, and most of the time they overcome those challenges, and the audience is satisfied by that pattern. Of course if all the humans or main characters - human & Cylon - who the audience identifies as positive - end up dying at the end of the series next year, perhaps the audience will be very disappointed. Success, in the Galactica world, ultimately means survival. Success in our world can also mean survival, except, we know all of us will die one day - from old age, etc. So, even though survival works as the ultimate signifier of success in the Galactica world - or in our judgement of the lives of the characters in that world, that is not an option that we have in our/the real world. Survival is only available to us as a source of temporary happiness - we know we are alive now, but who knows what will happen in 10 minutes or 10 years? Let's take a look at another kind of success, another kind of happiness, in a...