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

About James Lyons (1960 - 2007), from Filmmaker Magazine's blog : "If you didn’t know Jim personally and just recognize his name from movie credits, then you most probably remember him as an editor. His credits include four films by Todd Haynes – Poison, Safe, Velvet Goldmine and Far from Heaven – as well as Spring Forward, The Virgin Suicides, Silver Lake Life, and, most recently, A Walk into the Sea: The Danny Williams Story. The latter, a documentary by Esther Robinson about her uncle’s relationship with Andy Warhol and The Factory, won the Teddy at Berlin this year and receives its U.S. premiere at Tribeca this month. He was also an AIDS activist and educator." Here is the link to indieWIRE's tribute page to Lyons . Here is a paragraph from Spring Forward's director Tom Gilroy's entry regarding Lyons, from the indieWIRE tribute page: "Although Jim was a dear friend and peer, he was, in many ways, the closest thing I ever had to a mentor. To me, he was

Long before I became a DIY filmmaker, around 1990-91, I checked out a book by Rick Schmidt called Feature Filmmaking At Used Car Prices from the Gaithersburg, MD library. In it was a mention of one Jon Jost - super independent & self-reliant filmmaker. And of course by the time I first read about Jost he had been making real indie/DIY movies for probably longer than I had been alive. So, after all this time, it is great to hear that Jost is still going strong; selling lots of DVDs at well attended screenings full of passionate audience members and tackling complicated and important topics with his movies (most recently Homecoming, and La Lunga Ombra - read about both at this LA Weekly article ). Read about the experience of attending a recent Jost screening at Jerry Lentz's blog. Here is a sample from the post: "Jon Jost was everything I expected and more. He looks like a Social Studies teacher I had, but acts like the Wood Shop teacher we all loved because he wasn't

A number of people larger than half of the total US population, about 160 million people, are forced to live in sub-human/less than second class citizenship (both legally and in all other areas of life) conditions in India right now. Get all the sad and enraging news at this Human Rights Watch document: India's Dalits: between atrocity and protest . The same article can be found at the website Open Democracy , with comments and related links. - Sujewa

As everyone in the country and probably the world must know by now, a horrible tragedy happened earlier today at Virginia Tech ; just a couple of hours from where I write this, at a college with many connections to families & individuals throughout the DC area. 33 people are dead, a senseless loss, and thousands of others are deeply affected by the shootings today. It is difficult to come up with words that seem sufficient, words that are able to properly deal with the magnitude of the loss experienced today by the Virginia Tech community. I am sure that millions of us throughout the country and the world grieve with you tonight Virginia Tech. We wish you the best in dealing with today's tragic events, and many of us will no doubt gladly do what we can to try to make things even a little better for you. :: LINKS Here is the link to a blog by filmmaker and Virginia Tech professor Paul Harrill. Virginia Tech's website Google search with links to many stories re: Virginia Tec

Check it out here . Very interesting. Even though most people in America may not have heard about it, lots more Native American indie films are being made than ever before. Thanks GreenCine Daily for the link! - Sujewa

For all you DC area readers: my favorite video store - Potomac Video near Chevy Chase Circle in DC - now has DIY/real indie filmmaker Jon Moritsugu's excellent & accessible flick Fame Whore for rent on DVD. Here's the link to the store . Below is the review of the film that I wrote & published in this blog last year. FAME WHORE Review Review originally published 9/27/06 Jon Moritsugu's 1997 comedy-drama Fame Whore (due out soon on DVD) tells 3 stories: 1) about a tennis pro, #1 in the world - as he often tells everyone, or rather yells at everyone, one of the most annoying characters in cinema, and the turn his wealthy & successful life takes when a French newspaper outs him as being gay, 2) about an artist with very little talent, with I would say anti-talent, for singing attempting to master & create careers in music, video, photography, film and several other mediums of expression, played well & hilariously by Amy Davis, 3) about a lonely & frie

To make life a little bit easier for myself, the goal of creating & releasing 10 new feature films in 12 months (see post below ) has been changed to 10 new features in 30 months; May '07 - October '09. This change allows me more time to work on getting distribution started a bit better for each finished film. So, a new feature every 3 months. Expect the first of the 10 new features to be available to view at screenings & on DVD in August. Other upcoming major projects over here at Wild Diner Films: - Date Number One on DVD starting at some point this month! - Date Number One July 12 - 18 run in Kensington, MD - The Kensington Real Independent Film Festival (KRIFF), September 6 - 9, Kensington, MD Minor Project: - Microinvesting in a real indie film. In May will figure out who/which project gets the money ($500). Projects w/ Details To Be Determined: - Date Number One 1 week or longer runs in NYC, LA, Chicago - Also DNO for 1 week or longer runs in San Francisco, Seatt

So I got a second day job - assistant manager at a very cool video store in DC, started it last week. This will mean that although my 5 day work week will be much busier, I will have some extra money, a little more so than before, every week (plus health insurance! - mom will be happy :). I've got 2 days off (mostly off) from day job work every week, so that's 8 days a month, definitely enough time to shoot a "no" budget DV feature. There seems to be a shortage of good real indie movies by minority directors, or at least good real indie movies featuring minority & multi-ethnic or integrated casts, and I have a bunch of unproduced scripts & a ton of new ideas for "no" budget features, so, all this equals: Sujewa's 10 Features In 12 Months Project Bangor Films' Todd Verow & co. did something similar a few years ago; made several DV features in a short amount of time. So this is definitely doable. The goal is; from May '07 until

Explore it all here . And here is the link to a New York Times review of filmmaker Laurence Jarvik's documentary Who Shall Live and Who Shall Die? , regarding the role America played (or rather, sadly did not play when she had the chance to rescue many future victims) regarding the holocaust. Here is a little bit from Vincent Canby's 1982 review (linked above): "The film is full of uncomfortable testimony to the effect that this country's leaders were well aware of the form that Hitler's ''final solution'' was taking as early as August 1942, but that any concerted efforts to save the victims were sidetracked until the formation of the War Refugee Board early in 1944." Here is Laurence Jarvik's blog . The doc is out on DVD from Kino . - Sujewa ps - i work at potomac video now (2nd day job, started recently - will help with all the '07 film projects of mine), very cool dc video store; great collection of old movies, got a section of Jarm

James " Afro-Punk " Spooner's new film is titled White Lies, Black Sheep. Here is a part of the plot description of the movie: "A.J.'s real name is Ajamu Talib. His dislike for his African name is the least of his problems, still it says a lot about him. Brooklyn born and bred yet outcast by his peers, his only escape was music. A.J. found freedom in rock n roll. Tight clothes, straightened hair, popular with girls and partying every night, he is fully entrenched, in the debaucherous New York rock n roll scene. For once he feels like everyone else. Well almost. He begins to find that his chosen community, the white rock world, only seems to run smoothly for white rockers. A series of events force him to recognize his friends both exotify him and are in denial of his blackness. Black, but not "really" black. What's a young black rocker to do? " Read the rest here at WLBS's MySpace page . - Sujewa

It might provide some very serious competition to Mumblecore. Read all about it here . - Sujewa

For the recent & longer post on this subject, go here . Otherwise, check out these questions, offer your opinion, & please keep the tone of your comments professional or semi-pro. thanksalot! 9 Questions Regarding Race & Independent Film In America (and by independent film i mean real independent film: outside of Hollywood/Indiewood, low budget, no-star stuff. mostly festival screened & self-distributed stuff. such as Mumblecore movies, DIY movies, etc.) 1 - Is the US indie film scene/industry "ethnically" & gender wise sufficiently diverse at this point? 2 - What exactly is sufficient diversity? 3 - I don't see a lot of minority & also female indie filmmakers getting a lot of press from indie film blogs & websites (besides mine :), & the occasional indieWIRE article) but is that just perception (as in my eyes only picking up certain stuff) or is there actually a huge lack of coverage on good indie films made by non-"white" US

Here is a sample: "(MN) There are about 700-1,000 films made a year in Nigeria under the term “Nollywood.” These films are very popular and accessible and are not on the par of artistic/independent films. How can we reverse this trend? (JA) Not sure you want to reverse it. In fact, Africans were some of the first to be at the table of cinema. Images of Africans exist throughout the archives of cinema. In the 1970s & 1980s, curfews came in place. You couldn’t go out at night so cinemas closed down then. The idea if Nollywood is artistic or not is neither here nor there." Check out the rest here . - Sujewa

I am sure it will be fun. This idea came out of a comment that I just left about Mumblecore & "ethnic"/"racial" diversity at Cinephiliac . Here is my comment, and it quotes a comment left at Cinephiliac by David Redmon (David's words are in quotes): ----------------------------- David, Re: "Identity politics is a wave born out of and a reaction to the deadening 60s politics in the US." Maybe. " It's a strategy used to criticize any aspect of a genre or movement simply by launching a critique of race, able bodied, gender, sexuality, age, eye color, hair style, clothing, etc etc etc." OK. "Therefore, I hope critiques against any so called "movement" can be as original as the movement itself." Hmmm. That's a difficult one to figure out. In the case of M-core, it is not very original, people have been making low budget indie movies about twentysomethings at least since the early 80's or earlier. Jarmusch's

Originally posted 3/30/07 Pioneering indie/punk/DIY filmmaker Jon Moritsugu's ultra-low budget, Hi-8 filmed, award winning feature Scumrock , a tale about the struggle between the career ambitions of aspiring young creatives and the arrival of their dreaded 30's, will screen at the Kensington Real Independent Film Festival (KRIFF) this fall. KRIFF happens September 6 - 9 in Kensington, Maryland. About Jon Moritsugu (adapted from the introduction to an interview I did with him in 2005): Jon Moritsugu has played his movies in, and won awards at, underground film festivals and he has also played his movies at international, mainstream forums including the Cannes film festival. He once made a 16 MM Panavision movie for PBS with a budget of over $350,000 and he has also made feature length movies for under $5,000. This versatile, very creative, always super independent, punk rock influenced and inspired American filmmaker has a two decade long resume and body of work that most cre