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

check it out here. comes with a neat/kinda hot still of Parker Posey. - sujewa

In NYC this weekend (11/3 & 4). Read all about it at Indie Features 06 . - Sujewa

That's right, not one but TWO films, telling the story of two episodes of the rebel leader's life. Read all about it at Variety. - Sujewa

ninja at bookstore "Date Number One is quite funny...twentysomethings and occasional thirtysomethings looking for romance recall Richard Linklater's philosopher slackers and Jim Jarmusch's minimalist attention to conversation...also a subtle, thoughtful film...might be understood as the anti-Crash depiction of life in the city...depicts a comfortably multi-ethnic community...I'd happily recommend it." - Chuck Tryon, media professor & blogger, The Chutry Experiment blog http://chutry.wordherders.net/archives/005873.html rupa from "a romantic dinner for 3" "I found the characters and the premise sexy, sexy, sexy." - Jerry Brewington, Hollywood Is Talking blog, on Story 2 of Date Number One http://hollywoodistalking.com/Blog/508/ ninja & missy on their blind date "...witty...often inventive...and, even better, airy: characters are given time and space to spell out

Inland Empire at Laemmle Theaters http://www.laemmle.com/viewmovie.php?mid=2648 IFC Center, NYC, 12/6/06, from indieWIRE: http://www.indiewire.com/buzz/061029.html#005695 - Sujewa

$1000 Spielberg blog mentioned this blog recently, check it out here . $1000 Spielberg's got tips on ultra low budget DV film production. Thanks a lot for the mention $1000 Spielberg blog!

Here is the essential info. re: the next Date Number One screening: screening # 12 !The Final Screening of 2006! SAT NOVEMBER 4 :: 8 PM :: $6 a benefit screening for We Are Family, a DC non-profit that assists the elderly WAREHOUSE Screening Room 1017-21 7th St., NW Washington, DC 20001 202-783-3933 directions Will post the longer version of the announcement later today. Thanks! see ya there dc ppl - Sujewa

My South Asian War Movie/Ghost Story Script: Just finished writing a set of detailed notes re: plot & characters for a war movie that takes place in South Asia. Of course I am thinking about shooting the film in Sri Lanka (see below for some good financial reasons) specially since I've got tons of notes about the wars down there - more my reactions & thoughts & speculations than direct news report like notes - & since I've got many possibly useful connects there (at least a bunch of family to crash with:). A war is - for a story teller - an interesting situation - though it is horrible in real life - but a war is a very interesting device for telling a story - there is immediate drama & intensity, hard to look away for those people who are into those kinds of things. My South Asian war movie is also kind of a ghost story - perhaps Holloween is having an effect on me. I expect to finish the script before 1/1/07. From a talky DIY comedy/romantic comedy to a wa

- conceived of an epic directing project for '07 - saw Catch A Fire, good movie, liked it, enraging at times, mostly a positive thing, sad too. definitely worth watching. here's GreenCine Daily's post , w/ a lot of links, re: the movie. Here is a good quote from the director of Catch A Fire, Phillip Noyce, from an excellent GreenCine interview : " PN: There are a lot of issues that a film like this inevitably brings up, but only inasmuch as any examination history is illuminating - because the mistakes of the past are repeated in the present and the future. We know that. If you're asking if there are any parallels to be drawn between wars that are fought today and the events of yesterday, the answer is absolutely not, because if anyone tries to compare the struggle for emancipation in South Africa with some of the acts of terror that are being committed today, they're crazy. There's no comparison whatsoever. On the other hand, there are some cautionary tale

Saw American Hardcore earlier today. Good doc, but it felt like Act I of a bigger movie. Like they could have talked about the many social service and activist projects that grew out of the hardcore scene, like in DC over $200,000 has been raised & given away to various social service & humanitarian activist projects by Positive Force , with the help of punk/post-punk/indie musicians. Positive Force is an organization that grew out of the hardcore scene. The hardcore punks didn't just play music, they worked against what they did not like through other means also. I am sure hundreds of people around the country were introduced to social injustice/thinking about working against such through the hardcore punk scene & then they went on to do work that tried to make messed up situations better. In the Mark Andersen co-authored book Dance of Days , we get to see what happened to the hardcore kids (at least the DC hardcore kids) as they grew up: some went on to form awesome b

From the introduction to the interview with film critic, book author, and ex-film publicist Phil Hall at The House Next Door blog: "...having experienced both sides of the spectrum (and hanging up his publicist’s hat in 2004 to focus on criticism full-time) Hall has had the opportunity to see the strange balance of art and commerce that comprises the motion picture business. His previous book, The Encyclopedia of Underground Movies: Films From the Fringes of Cinema was a way of categorizing the films Hall felt needed a little more exposure, as well as a celebration of the art form. His latest, Independent Film Distribution: How to Make a Successful End Run Around the Big Guys , is all about the business--its rare success stories and its many pitfalls." Check out the interview here . - Sujewa

Pretty much everyone is blogging today about the indie film non-profit IFP/The Independent Feature Project ignoring their pro-indie mission & nominating 3 big budget Hollywood films for their Gotham Awards program, so I will begin by pointing to The Reeler's excellent entry re: the subject. So, why bother with the pretense of independence IFP? Just change your name to the Feature Project, drop the Independent from the title (which will only be a symbolic gesture now since you've already shown your preference for Hollywood/the-budget-&-stars-makes-it-impossible-to-ever-call-it-indie films with this year's Gotham Awards nominations), & have yourself fully funded by the big studios in exchange for getting them some press & publicity for their movies. Looks like the era of big indie film non-profits is coming to an end, with 2006 being a significant year for that slow death. Some organizations die due to lack of member interest (AIVF), while others sell their a

Photo Copyright 2004 Sujewa Ekanayake/Wild Diner Films And that is Dele Williams, who plays the character Rupa in Date Number One 's Story #2. A favorite DNO story of many, including Amir "Whale" Motlagh & Jerry "Hollywood Is Talking" Brewington . - Sujewa

What is the biggest link between Tadpole, Personal Velocity & Pieces of April? They are all good movies, true, and they are all movies shot on digital video, true again, but the biggest link is that they are InDigEnt movies. InDigEnt is America's answer to Dogme 95. Find out all about them here . I need to go see Wim Wender's Land of Plenty, another InDigEnt movie. I saw Lonesome Jim recently, yet another InDigEnt movie, pretty good. Been seeing Sorry, Haters DVD box checking me out at the video store, may have to rent it, another InDigEnt movie. - Sujewa

Scott Kirsner of the CinemaTech blog has compiled a list of sites that allow filmmakers to sell their work on-line, mostly through streaming & downloads, & a few cases of DVD "on demand" burning services, plus links & descriptions of several relevant up & coming services. Here is the introduction to the document : " New revenue opportunities are emerging with the recent boom in video viewing on the Web. On this chart, I've tried to list all of the Web sites that enable video producers to make money from their work. I've ranked the sites subjectively, based on how much traffic and buzz they've been attracting, and also how likely it seems that a video producer would actually manage to earn a significant return by posting a video to them. The majority of these sites are geared shorter-form content, but a few, like Brightcove, EZTakes, and GreenCine, make it possible for producers of hour-long or feature-length projects to generate revenue."