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

Brian, The Film Panel Notetaker, came down to my part of the world for the Thanksgiving weekend & I introduced him & his cool writer friend Sarah (sp?) to some delicious Vietnamese food in Wheaton, MD. Much quality fun was had. Brian posted a photo of me that he took this weekend at my dayjob - the bookstore - over at his blog, check it out here .

L-R: Dele Williams & Jennifer Blakemore from Story 2: A Romantic Dinner For 3, John Stabb Schroeder & Jewel Greenberg from Story 1: Just Another Ninja Searching For Love, Dele Williams from Story 2, small DNO promo image featuring ninja, Christine D. Lee from Story 4: Air Quotes Woman. All from Date Number One . Images Copyright 2006 Sujewa Ekanayake/Wild Diner Films

Get the early warning here . The robot war movie Automatons will play at the Pioneer Theater, NYC starting 12/13. I'll have a review, & some pics maybe, here soon. Will humanity survive? We'll know soon. Here's the synopsis of the flick from the Pioneer Theater's site : " Somewhere in the distant future, The Girl is alone. She is the last of her people, the others having died in a generations-long war that she continues to fight with the assistance of a group of antiquated robot helpers and soldiers. Her only connection to her long-dead people is a collection of recorded journal entries made by the scientist who cared for her as a baby. His is the only friendly human face she’s ever seen. The regular transmissions from her enemy leader are always filled with threats and taunts. The girl responds to these invasions by attack of her own, carried out by her mechanical soldiers on the contaminated surface where no human can survive. Men started this war. The mac

Independent film = in the United States a movie made outside of Hollywood or Indiewood (divisions of Hollywood companies that deal with low budget movies) or without the assistance of large corporate or institutional support, a movie made for a very low budget (if you have a lot of money to spend on your film, the fact that it is made outside of Hollywood or Indiewood is largely irrelevant), a movie made by a person or a team of people unknown to/previously not well employed by Hollywood or Indiewood & a movie featuring actors unknown to/previously not well employed by Hollywood or Indiewood. What is a low budget in late 2006? The independent film Dance Party, USA was reportedly made for $3,000. My independent movie Date Number One was made for under $10,000. I would say around $50,000 or less for a digital video originated movie and around $200,000 or less for a film made using 16 MM motion picture film are low budgets for this point in time. Is there an independent film aesthetic

Ed Burns & Kevin Smith, though close to me in age, are part of a different generation of filmmakers - they are of the "make your breakout feature on 16 MM, get picked up by Holly/Indie Wood, get famous/start career" generation - members of perhaps the first & the last generation - The 90's Indie Filmmaker Generation - of American film artists to get their careers started the way I described above. Because, as Burns says in the Looking For Kitty commentary, those days are over; distributors are telling him that the specialty film business of the 90's is no more. Check out this Q & A with Burns re: The Groomsmen (still have not seen that, looking forward to it), he talks a bit about the changing financing & distribution landscape that he finds himself in: http://chronicridicule.blogspot.com/2006/07/edward-burns-groomsmen-q.html Here is a relevant segment of the Q & A (re: The Groomsmen of course, & re: having Brittany Murphy in the movie): "

It's a low key drama-comedy so it is best to approach this movie by Ed Burns with modest expectations. Looking For kitty does deliver in the end, after a few unexpected twists and turns. The movie is about two men searching for a missing woman, at least that is the thin plot; inside that we get to see many warm snapshots of people grappling with the inevitable truth, slow changes in a new direction, and the streets of New York City bathed in the winter sun. This movie is unlike all of the other Burns movies I have seen (I believe I have seen them all except for The Groomsmen). Like a sip of fresh coffee on a cold day, Looking For Kitty is good & is recommended. The DVD is available now from THINKFilm . I stumbled upon a copy at my local Blockbuster Video yesterday, so it is probably everywhere now. - Sujewa

The following is an excerpt from a recent interview I did with Aaron Katz, the director of the indie drama Dance Party, USA. We got off the topic of his film & started talking about race & the indie film scene for a bit. Here is that portion of the interview: " Sujewa: It was cool hanging out with Stacy Schoolfield, a producer of the currently self-distributed flick Jumping Off Bridges, last night in Silver Spring, MD. We talked for a moment about the apparent low number of women & minorities in key positions in indie film production & distribution. I think the numbers are going up, but with the DV revolution I expected them to go up much quicker - since the cost of entry is now low & films can be made with just 1-5 or so crew members & very little equipment. Why do you think at the moment it seems like US indie film is mostly a liberal "white" male thing (not that there is anything wrong with that)? The indie film scene does not seem as dive

There is of course the non-indie film stuff that I am very thankful for; consisting mainly of being alive, good health & the special people in my life. And now here's the list of indie film stuff that I am thankful for this year: - getting Date Number One finished with the help of a whole lot of people - getting the 12 screenings of DNO done this year, again a lot of people helped with that one, u know who u are - Chuck Tryon's review of DNO after the World Premiere screening in May, very thankful for that, it was way better than what I expected - all the other positive reviews of DNO from this year, very very thankful for those; from Hollywood Is Talking blog, GreenCine Daily & Amir Motlagh & a big thanks to anyone who is not covered by the above items but helped me with my indie film stuff this year. indie film maybe independent of hollywood, but it is very dependent on a lot of cool people, at least that is the case in my experience - so thanks thanks thanks a l

Eight Men Out is an excellent movie. And when I first saw it & then liked it; read about it, it was difficult for me to believe an independent filmmaker had made that movie 'cause at that point (early 90's), to me indie filmmakers meant folks like Jim Jarmusch, Hal Hartley & Gus Van Sant - w/ a slightly rougher, more off-beat style & take on life than the very polished & kind of classic Eight Men Out style & view. Eight Men Out's director John Sayles' career goes back further then that of my early 90's indie filmmaker heros, and now web surfers can read all about it at what appears to be the official John Sayles site . The other link find of the day was the Emerging Pictures blog . I got the John Sayles site link from the EP blog. Thanks Filmmaker Magazine's blog for the EP blog link. Now we just need the official Jim Jarmusch website or the official Jim Jarmusch blog :) Then all will be nearly perfect on the web regarding the presence of cla

I don't recall reading reviews of this flick or seeing any sign of a theatrical release. I don't know if the movie is good, but it's ED BURNS, shouldn't a film by him get a theatrical release; given that he's made several movies, some very good, & was one of the stars of Saving Private Ryan (i bring that up only to point out that Burns is not an unknown in the film biz - not a huge risk to put out a flick starring him & made by him to theaters i think)? I saw Kitty on DVD at Blockbuster today, rented it, am about to watch it. Ed, if you read this, get in touch, let's do an interview re: the fate of Kitty. Why did it not get released theatrically? And what's with The Groomsmen not getting a wide(er) theatrical release - even a wider indie level theatrical release? I don't think it came to DC. And I only saw very little press & publicity for that flick. Something weird is going on. - Sujewa

Aaron Katz is the director of the well reviewed ultra low budget indie drama Dance Party, USA (check out my review here , I enjoyed the flick). The movie recently started playing at the Pioneer Theater in New York City. I was able to ask Katz a few questions recently about his film work and some related topics during this e-mail interview: Sujewa: Hey Aaron, I liked Dance Party, USA a lot. Since other recent interviews ( GreenCine Daily's links for the movie ) have talked a lot about the movie, I'll start off with a question about the movie that you just finished: Quiet City - what's that about? Aaron: Quiet City is about a couple strangers, Charlie and Jamie, who meet and hang out in Brooklyn over the course of 24 hours. Jamie's supposed to be meeting her friend, but the friend never shows so she just keeps hanging out with Charlie. I'm excited about it. Cris and Erin, the two leads, were amazing to work with. They were both totally open. Sujewa: And on to DPUSA

Indie Features video site Lance Weiler, one of my co-bloggers at the indie film group blog Indie Features (formerly known as Indie Features 06) has started a video site for clips of films by IF bloggers. Check out the video site here . There is at least 1 more IF video site coming this year; a project I started working on about a month ago at YouTube but have not completed yet. It'll get done before '07. Thanks Lance for setting up the first Indie Features video site! Hopefully next week I can add some Date Number One clips to it. My Fylmz Interview The indie film site Fylmz interviewed me today about Date Number One & self-distribution. Will let ya know when they have the interview up on the web. Thanks Fylmz! Happy Thanksgiving Got much plans to hang with family & friends on T-giving day. Hope you've got some warm fuzzy stuff going on that day too. Have a happy Thanksgiving. - Sujewa

Saw Fast Food Nation last night. Yummy may be the wrong word to describe it, but the movie certainly was well done & let's say nutritious. The scenes of cows getting killed were very effective, I could not bring myself to eat meat today. FFN was exceptional for a couple of other reasons: in the story the bad guys are basically pawns of a system - a system that stays alive because of the consumer preference for meat, and the good guys are not very effective. Which makes me as the audience member ask myself: "well, what's the solution?". If the burger industry executives are too weak or basically unable to do the right thing (that being stopping or cutting back on making burgers, or at least making sure the entire burger making process is as painless as possible for everyone involved) I guess as a customer, it is up to me to help influence change by not consuming meat. That's right; cows get slaughtered & all manner of laws get violated in order to make a

I am going to have to watch Short Cuts & The Player again, two of my favorite Altman movies, to celebrate his long career. Check out GreenCine Daily's post re: Altman's life & work. - Sujewa

This is a segment from a long interview I did with indie film publicity consultant & former publicist Reid Rosefelt: " Sujewa: Back in '83/'84 did you think Jim Jarmusch & Stranger Than Paradise would become the icons that they are now; when you first saw Stranger & met Jarmusch? Any related stories about the early days of Jarmusch would be much appreciated. I see his career (the high profile/level of success) as being very odd & unpredictable - as in, typically things that get big in America, American art & entertainment - seems to have a lot of flash, noise & drama to it - specially in movies - Stranger certainly does not, at least not in any kind of a typical way. Like I can watch an early Scorcese or Spike Lee or Speilberg movie & believe that those directors would catch on in America (let's pretend that I did not know those directors were famous already), Stranger doesn't send out the same vibes. Anyway, let me stop here so you ca