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

Rosefelt and Shelly were friends, and he directed her in a short film. Read Rosefelt's recollections and thoughts about Shelly and her work here .

Good pumped up & exciting sounds, great visuals - stills animated kind of look & feel, a story - not too clear - better because of it, need to watch it again to get the story fully, more exciting than most music videos I've seen because of its indie California vibe. Check it out here at YouTube . - Sujewa

Wrote the synopsis for a new film today, will be working on the script in the coming month while getting Date Number One out (DVDs for sale & '07 screenings set up). This new film idea is kind of similar to Pulp Fiction (noirish-comedy) and Repo Man (blending a subculture with an alien story), and I probably will not be able to shoot it for an ultra-low/"no" budget since it has some explosions, gun play, space ships & fighter jets in action, and a couple of elaborate sets - but who knows, maybe CGI & other technology is a lot more affordable now - will have to see. So I am thinking that this Untitled Noirish-Alien-Comedy of mine will cost over $100K to produce. I may need some indiewood or Hollywood (gasp!) help with this one. In case that film takes forever to make because the budget is bigger than what I've worked with thus far, I am also working on (has been for about two weeks now) a script for a comedy/romantic comedy about several young writers (i

A post from March of last year at Filmmaking For The Poor blog , still useful. A few ideas for indie filmmakers re: DIY (do-it-yourself) screenings/showing their own work to a paying audience. Check it out here .

If Jim Jarmusch is a great example of keeping things very indie for a long time, then Spike Lee (who released his first widely distributed feature She's Gotta Have It in '86, 2 years after Jarmusch's Stranger Than Paradise) is a great example of: keeping the indie voice (more or less i think), getting a lot of movies made, and being able to work comfortably in many filmmaking arenas (TV, Hollywood, etc.). Check out Lee's filmography at this New York Times web page.

It would take a little bit of time to introduce the conflict but maybe it would be better if you were to go here and scroll down to Kyle Smith's photo & read from there. Kevin Smith reacts to Kyle Smith's reaction to Kevin Smith's acting in Catch & Release. Of course, were it not for Kevin Smith's appearance in that movie (many critics are pleased with his performance, check out the quotes here ), I don't think I would ever mention Catch & Release in this blog :) But, since KS is in the movie, I may have to rent the DVD of C & S or something. The Kevin Smith vs. Kyle Smith conflict is funny, as it involves reactions to a "dude lit" (male version of "chic lit") book.

A big thanks to everyone who participated in the Jarmusch blog-a-thon. It was fun, & useful, filmmaking wise, to reflect on Jarmusch's career so far. Perhaps I'll do this again next year, next January, for Jarmusch's next birthday. Here's what else is going on over here this weekend: the latest Iraq war protest is happening in DC - very interesting, huge turnout I hear, hopefully something good will come out of it. I went to see an opera tonight in Rockville - long, interesting, like a movie but without cinematography, liked it (at least until the intermission, was kinda tired after that) - saw Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro (first performed in 1786!), performed by the Bulgarian State Opera (i thought they did an excellent job), i think this was my first time at an opera. Did some work on the Date Number One DVD & posters, DVD cover yesterday, more work on that coming this week & hopefully by the end of the week the DVD will be completed, and will