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

I don't mean Sofia, I mean the other famous filmmaker in the Coppola family: Francis Ford. Sure I loved his big Hollywood movies like The Godfather before I discovered indie films, but Hollywood's broad spell has not been so powerful after that. So FF Coppola was not a director I thought about much in the last 14 years or so. But his new self financed (from his day job?/side job? in the wine biz - in classic real indie style/making yer movies with money from yer day job :) Youth Without Youth sounds very interesting. As is the general real indie direction that he is heading with his career. Read all about it here . Maybe he'll self-distribute YWY - David Lynch style or possibly even new Star Wars or Passion of the Christ style - for total indie freedom. Either way, looking forward to the flick. I've read & liked some books by YWY author Mircea Eliade . YWY is a great title & a great name for a band. I bet there already is, or if not, soon will be, some

Very interesting article in the New Yorker about various reactions, including a couple of different military reactions, to the use of torture by the "good guys" in Fox's show "24". Read it here . Thanks GreenCine Daily and CineFile Video for the link. And of course, it goes without saying, when in doubt, regardless of what a TV show may or may not imply, don't torture ! Torture is: generally illegal, unconstitutional, a war crime, useless & counter productive under all circumstances. Many experts will tell you the same, more in the article . Even if some "bright" legal scholars & attorneys play with the exact meaning of the word torture in order to allow you to carry it out or if certain circumstances will allow you to get away with it temporarily, torture is wrong. If you do it you will most likely have to pay for it one day; victims, their families, and most countries have long memories when it comes to these things . - Sujewa

Digital video filmmaking pioneer Todd Verow has a new short premiering at Berlinale and he has shot a new feature called Between Something and Nothing . Very productive that Mr. Verow. Find out more about all his projects at Bangor Films .

of course by the time it is done, it should not bear much resemblance to the very early models that i keep in mind while i am writing the script, even before the film is shot; but my next feature will be kind of like Woody Allen's Manhattan. of course the city will be DC, not NYC. it'll be in color & in digital video, not black & white & in 35mm film. the lead character will be nothing like a Woody Allen lead character. it will be a comedy/romantic-comedy/comedy-drama like Manhattan. if i am very lucky i will end up with some great music as Allen did with Manhattan, i doubt mine will be classical though. maybe only i will be able to see the similarities between my next movie & Manhattan, but, as long as it turns out halfway decent, the whole thing will be a fine & worthy undertaking. it helps me to have some models for the film as i am making it. my '06 movie Date Number One is, in some ultimately minor ways, similar to certain Jim Jarmusch movies (spec

My newest indie filmmaking related past time is trying to help fellow low/"no" budget filmmakers make their second or third or whaterver, post-first & good, "no" budget feature. And by "no" budget I mean under $10K ($3K to $5K budget would be best, it is doable, Swanberg & Dance Party, USA & Kelley Baker & others have done it in the past). Often it isn't the exact amount of money that makes a big difference in an ultra-low budget project, it is the fact that someone other than the filmmaker believes enough in the filmmaker or the project to give any money to the project. I have been supported at very crucial times by small investments in my most recent project Date Number One . So I would like to return the favor, help another filmmaker or two this year. I offered $500 (to be handed over in May, after taxes & current Date Number One debt & other related expenses of mine are well under control) towards the next feature of a fil

check it out here . apparently Chelsea Girls was Andy Warhol's first commercial success. i saw Factory Girl last night. it was interesting. visually it was very interesting - good production design & cinematography. - sujewa

Photo Copyright 2006 Sujewa Ekanayake/Wild Diner Films hope you get all the romance you want on Valentines Day. so says the Date Number One ninja. - sujewa

How To Eat Your Watermelon In White Company (And Enjoy It) a feature documentary on Melvin Van Peebles directed by Joe Angio 2/15, 9 PM on IFC and here's info. on the film from a promo e-mail that i received (looking forward to seeing this one): " Synopsis: Melvin Van Peebles created a new style of African-American filmmaking in 1971, when on a shoestring budget he made Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song, a violent action picture about a sex-show stud on the run from the police that below the surface served as a call for revolution in the black community. But Sweet Sweetback was hardly Van Peebles' first or only bold achievement in the arts. After brief careers piloting cable cars in San Francisco and flying fighter planes in the Korean war, Van Peebles moved to Paris, where he wrote five novels, became a regular contributor to an anarchist journal, and directed his first feature film, The Story of a Three-Day Pass. On the strength of its critical acclaim, Van Peeb

a filmmaking competition for young women. get all the info. here.

knowing where to play your movie & sell your DVD is not enough, you've gotta have press to let yer audience know that yer film exists. here's the newspapers google map search that i just did. i expect a similar kind of search can be done for television & radio. for blogs i guess a general search in google for the type of blogs you want will probably be enough, since the physical location & mailing address to the blog is not all that important since blogs can be contacted through e-mail, through addresses that would most likely be listed on the blogs themselves.

can serve pretty much the same function as the film festival & video store maps mentioned in the earlier posts: as a tool for indie filmmakers/self-distributors. check out a US movie theaters google map here.

want to figure out where a certain film festival might be or where all the film festivals in America are? goole maps may help, check this map search out.

want a complete list of all the video stores in America so you can possibly look into selling your indie movie on DVD to them? then check out google maps to figure out the important info; fast & free. this map is a general search on US video stores. shows, quite possibly, all the places in America that sells videos & DVDs & then some (the search returned over 1 million entries, a too high of a number to be accurate i think, may include businesses that have anything to do with videos & DVDs & no longer active stores, more refined searches will be more useful). i also did some searches for all the Blockbuster & Hollywood video locations, just to see where they are, & the google maps were very helpful with that task. but generally i think google maps will be useful in identifying independent video stores. since the thousands of Blockbuster locations may be accessible from one central office, & the same with Hollywood & other large chains. anyway,

a photo exhibit in dc . here is the introduction to the show, from Govinda Gallery's site: "Govinda Gallery is pleased to present Punk Love, a selection of photographs by Susie J. Horgan that is both an exceptional contribution to the history of punk as well as a true reflection of punk values. After meeting Henry Rollins and Ian MacKaye while she was working at the Häagen-Dazs in Georgetown, Horgan began documenting the birth of the early Washington, D.C., punk movement in 1979. D.C. punk was a different kind of punk. It was hardcore. It was explosive. It was revolutionary. Often misread as a music of hate and anger, punk rock was spiritual and, at its core, the message was about basic values--self-respect and justice. In short, it was punk love."

:: 2/6/06 (date started, updated after that as noted): I definitely think it was a success, an exciting new development in US indie film. 'cause to me it looks like indie filmmakers embraced self-distribution at a greater number than ever before (since the birth of the new wave of US indie with Stranger Than Paradise in '84) AND had a few instances of success (depending on how u define it; but Head Trauma & Mutual Appreciation became well known among & available to their target audiences in '06 through self-distribution, to mention just 2 projects) AND self-distro also spilled over to Lynchland with INLAND EMPIRE. But I want to know what others who care about this topic think; let the discussion begin. I already sent an e-mail to one David Lowery, filmmaker, gentleman & Texas mischief maker, inviting him to weigh in on the '06 self-distro events, perhaps he will (a few of us had a long conversation about self-distribution at David's blog in early '0