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

The first part of the year, actually pretty deep into late summer/early fall, there aren't too many great Hollywood movies out, & the indiewood movies that are out are targeted mostly to an older demographic than my peers, so, next year, my plan is to show Date Number One for 1 week each in 12 US cities, one after the other (well, w/ a 1 week break in between the start of each engagement), w/in the first 6 months of the year: January to end of June 2007. Hopefully those theatrical engagements will not have to be four-walled runs, but rather Head Trauma '06 esque collaborations between myself & the theaters. Additional expenses: any paid marketing, travel, etc. can be covered by one of my investors & any savings from '06 & maybe '07 dayjob work, provided those expenses are relatively low. Plus $s from DVD sales this year may assist w/ '07 theatrical related expenses. And I am going to try to get paid speaking engagements/work shops, Lance Weiler '

The big new story in indie film this year is self-distribution. The story got started way back in early '06 with Four Eyed Monsters distro news. Then it continued with stories on Kicking Bird, Head Trauma, Date Number One (that's my movie! :), Mutual Appreciation, Jumping Off Bridges, etc. As regular readers of this blog know, I am all about celebrating self-distribution, so if you missed any of the original entries re: self-distro of mentioned films, go back & look: it's archives time baby! The latest filmmaker to get major blog press re: self-distribution this year is Rick Stevenson from Seattle. His film Expiration Date sounds very interesting (bonus points for the minority - Native American - lead, go Rick !), looking forward to checking it out. Here is the GreenCine interview with Stevenson. - Sujewa special thanks goes out to Jerry "Hollywood Is Talking" Brewington for pointing out the GreenCine interview. thanks JB!

The brothers Jason & Brett Butler from Canada mailed me a DVD of their movie BUMS last week. It is going on my now 2 titles deep list of movies to watch (I rented BRICK about a week ago, still have not gotten to it), so I expect to see it at some point this month. Even though I am officially out of the film review game, I will occasionally check out & write about other people's movies, as time permits. Either way, here is a description of BUMS, from the DVD's cover: " A day in the life comedy, BUMS follows the lives of six friends as their relationships blur together to produce love, laugh, lethargy and a loose canon. BUMS is an insightful and provocative look at life neither here nor there on a day like any other day - when you don't have a clue what you're doing but all the time in the world to do it." Sounds interesting. Here is the web site , explore more. - Sujewa

How do you sell 10,000 DVDs of your no-budget, no star but superdelicious feature? Well, if you are a no-budget, DIY process addicted self-distributor like myself, then you do it 1 DVD at a time. The retail DVDs of Date Number One are not ready yet, but I am working on them. Should have them ready for sale by the end of this month. And just because the DVD is being sold does not mean that screenings are over. Not in the post-Funny Ha Ha/Mutual Appreciation age where an indie film can do cable or DVD & then still keep playing theaters. More screenings than ever will be happening in '06 & '07 for DNO, while I am selling the DVDs. Crooked Beat , a local DC record & CD & DVD store ordered 3 DVDs of Date Number One today. When those sell, they'll ask for more. My first major sales goal for DNO DVDs is 10,000 units. A goal that is to be accomplished when possible. Hopefully w/in 2 years. So 3 DVDs placed with a retailer, and just only 9997 to go :) :) :) Retail st

I just created a Yahoo Group for DIY filmmakers/self-distributors . Hopefully it will quickly evolve into a place where DIY filmmaker/distributors can ask each other questions, get answers re: distribution & production matters - w/ out having to post Qs at the Comments section at various blogs/entries & waiting around 'till they get answered, which is how it is happening now. We'll see how it goes. In the meantime, here is the link (go join!): http://movies.groups.yahoo.com/group/usdiyfilm/ And here is the official introduction to the group: " This group is an attempt to create a forum of communication for US based self-distributing low budget filmmakers or independent/D.I.Y. (do-it-yourself) filmmakers. Group started & moderated by Sujewa Ekanayake, director & distributor of the 2006 comedy feature Date Number One ( http://www.wilddiner.com/ ). Hopefully this group will offer a place for filmmakers to quickly figure out answers to production & distrib

What were the films that defined independent film back in the 1980s & 1990s? What were they like? How were they made? Most of them were character studies. They were mostly dialogue driven. They were made for budgets that were ultra-low by Hollywood standards: from around $20,000 to around $150,000. They did not feature any Hollywood stars or television personalities. These original indie films that I speak of are: Stranger Than Paradise by Jim Jarmusch, She's Gotta Have It by Spike Lee, The Unbelievable Truth by Hal Hartley in the 1980s, and Slacker by Richard Linklater, Clerks by Kevin Smith in the early 1990s. Each of those films introduced a new American filmmaking sensibility, plus unknown directors and unknown actors to the world. Between 1984s Stranger Than Paradise and 1994s Pulp Fiction, independent film went Hollywood, and thus Indiewood was born. Indiewood came quickly into maturity in the 1990s assisted to a large degree by the Sundance Film Festival and Miramax Film

Very exciting to be featured in a story on self-distribution at the IFC website. The story is an IFC News item titled " The Final Frontier of Filmmaking: Three Stories of Self-Distribution " written by Alison Wilmore. Here is a paragraph from the article: "These days, a crowded market and the sheer difficulty of making money on a theatrical release has made distributors wary of taking any chances, and often when an offer is made, it's not at all favorable towards the filmmaker. Suddenly self-distribution, once an unthinkable rarity, seems like a viable option for filmmakers who are willing to do the work to get their films on screens. September may be the month self-distribution comes into its own. The three filmmakers profiled below are all in the midst of releasing their own films, and they're not the only ones." The filmmakers & projects profiled are: Andrew Bujalski & Mutual Appreciation, myself (Sujewa Ekanayake) & Date Number One, and Lanc

The epic event is here folks, see ya at the show - those who are bold & sexy enough to attend :) And, one last time, here is all the info, including link for tix purchase: DATE NUMBER ONE http://www.wilddiner.com/ a comedy about several first dates a movie by sujewa ekanayake Thursday, August 31, 9 PM The Two Boots Pioneer Theater http://www.twoboots.com/pioneer/monthly_programs/2006-08.htm#DateNumberOne 155 East 3rd Street(between Avenues A and B, closer to A) New York, New York 212-591-0434 ticket prices:$9 adults, $6.50 members Buy Tix Now: http://pioneertheater.tix.com/Event.asp?Event=65968 Film's Description:"Date Number One" is a comedy about several first dates. This 115 minute movie is made up of 5 different stories: Story 1: Just Another Ninja Searching For Love, about a ninja who goes on a blind date (ninja is played by John Stabb Schroeder from the DC punk band G.I.), Story 2: A Romantic Dinner For 3, about a woman attempting to add a third partner to a rom

One of the problems I had with American cinema back in the early 90's was that there weren't enough good roles/lead roles for minority actors. Not the biggest problem in the world by any stretch, but, since the world is very diverse ethnically or "racially"* & since America is very diverse, I found it very odd that most of the leads in most of the movies around me were "white" (I do however live in a very diverse part of the country, the Washington, DC area, so for someone who lives in an area that is not this diverse, it may feel perfectly normal not to see non-"white" people in movies). So, when I decided to become a filmmaker in '91, I also decided to have a very diverse cast in my movies & to create roles for minority actors. I was able to follow through on that goal in Date Number One . Date Number One, a film made up of 5 stories, features a diverse cast that includes 5 minority actors in lead roles: Shervin Boloorian in Story 2,

Regarding Date Number One , David Hudson at GreenCine Daily says, in part: "... witty (I particularly like the recurring references to a band's unlikely popularity in Ohio), often inventive (the story in which the first date isn't really the first date at all is particularly well-written and performed) and, even better, airy: characters are given time and space to spell out their views on abortion, Buddhism, quantum physics or the ongoing war in Sri Lanka, views that never bear the artificial markings of a Hollywood screenwriter's compulsion to reduce them to sound-bites." Read the whole review here . Thanks for watching the movie & writing a review about it David! Very exciting to see a review of my movie in GreenCine Daily (best indie film blog in the western world, no doubt), which is my favorite indie film blog (even if David's verdict on the film is a mixed one :). - Sujewa

Read all about it here: http://indiefeatures06.blogspot.com/2006/08/indie-features-07-is-alive.html Filmmaker/bloggers interested in participating in the 2007 version of Indie Features 06 should go check out IF07 blog & if their projects seem like a good match for the blog, can e-mail me at wilddiner AT aol.com w/ a description of their films. We'll take things from there. Thanks! - Sujewa

Just spent some time on the Greyhound website, looks like it is possible to travel relatively fast by land & for relatively cheap. The US is huge, but DC to LA in 2 days is not bad at all, for like $180 (1 screening with decent ticket sales can cover that easily). Also, if I work in some stops along the way - some screenings, like in Chicago, etc., the trip can be more bearable & useful. This of course is also a chance to imitate Jack " On The Road " Kerouac's cross country travelin', re-live my 18 year old self's fascination with (which happened the first time back in '91 when I was in Chicago) traveling America by land. And I am not crazy about flying. Feels weird. I'll do it if I must, but I prefer not to. Land travel by fast buses, w/ screening stops every few hundred miles may be the trick to getting around the air plane issue that comes up when considering a US wide screening tour. & bus travel is cheaper than air travel. Yeah, it could

Read it here . good stuff if the top link does not work due to your irrational fear of registering with the Globe, read about the article here . - sujewa

i am trying to figure out the whole round trip dc-nyc/staying over night? thing for the thu 8/31 screening of Date Number One at Pioneer Theater in NYC. let's see: driving is a possibility, but doing 4 hours of driving each way/total 8+ hours in one day/24+ hour period may not be healthy, plus I may be sleepy + tired after the show lets out around 11 PM (later if Q & A goes long) - will most likely have to rent a hotel room or bug a pal for crash space if I am not going to drive back the same day. flying & train travel seem too expensive, plus not something that can be easily duplicated for other shows in nyc, due to cost of course. so, greyhound maybe the best alternative for a lot of east coast (let's say mid-atlantic area - DC, NYC, philly, baltimore, etc., i can handle being in a bus for 4-6 hours i think) travel for the diy filmmaker. they have round trip tix, dc-nyc, for around $45 - $70. and they travel overnight. so, if i want to, i can leave nyc at 1 am &

yup, due to a scheduling conflict at the bookstore, the Capital City Microcinema/Kensington Row Bookshop screening of Date Number One that was set for Thu 9/28 has been moved to Thu 10/5. more on that next week. in the meantime, here is the link to the info & tix for NYC Premiere screening of Date Number One, happening this Thu 8/31 @ Pioneer Theater. - sujewa