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

And that's (from L to R) Rupa, the ex-Buddhist nun, creator of a new religion (in-progress) (played by Dele Williams), Sunshine, the woman who is working on a book to help save the world (Jennifer Blakemore), and Kamal, the indie rock star who is really into quantum physics (Shervin Boloorian), from Story 2 of Date Number One . Happy holidays everyone! photo copyright 2006 sujewa ekanayake/wild diner films

Dang! This event happened like 5 mins from my house but I did not know about it 'till later!!! From Silverdocs '06: http://www.fest21.com/en/blog/silverdocs/jim_jarmuschs_dialogue_with_martin_scorsese

DC based Filipino-Canadian (how's that for some local & international flavor? :) filmmaker Alex Pacheco is working on finishing up a feature called Praxis - "about a young writer who develops a fragmented identity". I've seen short films by Alex & liked 'em. They were also well received by festivals, reviewers & audiences. Here is Alex's Praxis blog . And here is the web site for Praxis.

The latest news from Sri Lanka is that the government forces are doing well against the separatist LTTE rebels - a group that is banned by many governments (including the US gov) due to their terroristic activities (suicide bombing, killing or trying to kill all major critics & challengers - including Tamils - the people they claim to be liberating, recruiting child soldiers, etc.). The sooner the 20 some year old war is over, the better it will be for everyone in Sri Lanka. Here is a Hindustan Times story with an update on the war. For more news stories on Sri Lanka, these two sites are good: Lanka Page The Lanka Academic For an often less official but often very informative take on the news, check out: LankaWeb And, for info. on one major event that we can never forget, the anti-Tamil progroms of Black July - July of 1983 (by conservative estimates 1,000 - 3,000 Tamils killed by Sinhala mobs while the then government stood aside for several days. the government has changed for t

December 23rd is Festivus , the festival for the rest of us! Originated in a Seinfeld episode in '97, Festivus is a fast growing celebration. Over here in the DC area, at College Park, MD, there is a Festivus pole outside of the cafe College Perk . Here is the Wikipedia entry on Festivus , with a lot of interesting links (did ya know St. Louis, MO claims to be the city with one of the biggest Festivus celebrations? :).

Off the Black, the off-beat drama starring Nick Nolte, opens in DC & Boston today. The film's director James Ponsoldt has a brief message that he wants to share, so here is James: Hey there-- "OFF THE BLACK" opens today in BOSTON (AMC LOEWS HARVARD 5) and WASHINGTON D.C. (E STREET CINEMA). Please check it out if you're in one of those cities and let your friends know that it's playing. We need all your support! We're a low-budget independent film with a next-to-nothing advertising budget (I'm really not kidding--practically no ads!), so word of mouth is vital...or else we'll be bumped from the theater by studio flicks (like "Eragon"). Thank you so much and enjoy your holidays! Yours and I am, James P.S. In addition to getting raves today in "The Boston Herald" and "The Boston Phoenix," we just received a beautiful review in "The Boston Globe." I've included it below... 'Off the Black' is on target

Here is the link for the indieWIRE page with the names of the critics (& their publications) who participated in iW's year end poll re: best films & performances, etc. (which is a feature imported from Village Voice). Filmmaker/distributors who are distributing a film next year may want to get a screener to the hands of some or all of the critics listed on the page. If a lot of them like your film, it will be another useful marketing thing. The list includes print & web critics.

Talented (if not & want to be, you can learn stuff by reading about it & doing it on a small scale - short films)? A filmmaker? Storyteller? Don't have a lot of money or access to a lot of money to blow on film production & distribution? Don't have any indiewood or Hollywood connections? If you said yes to all those questions then you can still launch a filmmaking career by doing the following things, now at a lower cost than ever before: 1) study filmmaking & story telling & life & history well & then write an awesome script for a feature length project that can be produced for no money or very little money. You have plenty of projects for inspiration (any early Jim Jarmusch film, any early Hal Hartley film, Clerks, Slacker, most Woody Allen movies, most Ed Burns movies, She's Gotta Have It, just to name a few), 2) shoot the film on DV or another affordable, high quality video format (& remember to keep your day job during this entire proces

Just finished watching Episodes 6 - 8 of HBO's mostly excellent series Rome . I say mostly excellent because in Episode 6 & 8 they glossed over 2 huge battles. The final battle between Caesar & Pompey (where Caesar was outnumbered 5 to 1 by Pompey's forces) was depicted in like 1 or 2 minutes using fuzzy, slow-mo soldiers fighting medium shots. Where is the attention to detail HBO? A gigantic battle that was the last obstacle in Caesar's path to turning the Roman republic into an empire depicted in fuzzy, slow-mo medium shots?????!!!!??? That battle alone should have been 1 whole episode, depicted in an epic manner. Also, in Episode 8 we get to see Cleopatra's Egypt. The relatively awesome production design that showed up on Episodes 1 - 3 are sadly absent when it comes to bringing Egypt to life. The main city (Alexandria?) where the Egyptian action takes place looks horribly underpopulated & it does not look like the rulers of Egypt had an army. The battle

David Lynch (center) working with actors. I just listened to Lance Weiler's interview with Absurda's (David Lynch's company) Eric Bassett re: distribution plans for INLAND EMPIRE. Very informative interview & it is encouraging to see a well known director embrace self-distribution. In the interview Bassett said that Lynch will not be working inside the Hollywood system again & that on his next film he will handle not just US distribution but also world distribution. On a more local note, Lynch is supposed to be in DC for INLAND EMPIRE premiere in January (exact date & venue info. coming as soon as I figure those out), looking forward to that. Maybe he'll bring the cow. Check out the Bassett interview here. - Sujewa

Sounds very exciting. Check it out here & hear all about how David Lynch & co. is gonna do their INLAND EMPIRE self-distribution magic. - Sujewa

Still a few time consuming things to do before I can start selling the Date Number One DVD. Hopefully by the end of this week all that stuff will be finished & I can at least make 100 DVDs available for sale. Grrrr. But it will be worth the wait, the film is looking & sounding a lot better. Also, much theatrical screening plans for '07 are being worked on. Will have more March '07 screening dates to announce very soon. In the meantime, & on the bright side, here is a segment of the Date Number One review from my favorite film blog GreenCine Daily (w/ some words made large by me): "... 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 Sr

I just watched the first two episodes of the HBO series Rome . Good stuff - as historical dramas go, probably the best production design of any of the movies or TV shows about the Roman old republic/empire that I've seen. Also HBO's take on Rome is more socially nuanced - with humor & greater attention to social & religious customs. In Episode 2 the Senate or whatever the political assembly in Rome is called takes a vote on declaring Julius Caesar an enemy of the republic BUT the whole procedure is treated as a religious event, with an old priest presiding over the whole affair & having the final word on what happened. So one of the main differences between old Rome and modern US & other European offshoot countries - governmentally speaking - is that the government is no longer intertwined with religion. I guess we have The Enlightenment to thank for that. Also, according to this Wikipedia entry, Enlightenment also led to liberalism & capitalism - not bad

One of the self-distributed indie films that I've blogged about this year - Four Eyed Monsters - is gonna get some additional help with distribution now that they've won a Sundance Channel award. Read all about it at indieWIRE . - Sujewa