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

This amusing article in the Guardian made me think of an idea for some plucky UK based indie filmmakers: a movie, would have to be a comedy, about a group of quirky (yes, would have to be) British filmmakers trying to make a road movie; you know, the kind that the US releases in "bundles" (Little Miss Sunshine, The Puffy Chair, etc.). Could be funny, could work. If anyone in the UK pulls this off, lemme know. Here's the link to the Guardian article about American road movies (including a Puffy Chair mention) & the lack of British road movies. - Sujewa

Read it here . Some people in DC want the fest to be famous like Sundance or SXSW, the fest's director Tony Gittens is happy with how things are. Filmfest DC is 20 years old, has a budget of about $410,000, and the '06 version of the fest reported attendance by 34,000 people. Check out the long & informative article here . - Sujewa

Man, things in the DIY indie film world can take a loooong time to get done. It's like fighting underwater with a non hydro-dynamic haircut (and here i am hoping that hydro-dynamic means the same thing as aero-dynamic, except, u know, for water). Anyway, the months have rolled by, this May 13 will be the 1 year anniversary of the World Premiere of Date Number One . I better have the DVD available for sale before 5/13. Once the DVD is ready, I can get busy with some other DNO distribution & promotional things that I want to try. The other important project right now is trying to get a ton of DC area press coverage for the 1 week DNO run in Kensington; July 12 - 18. Scroll a few posts down for more info. on that run. :: Topic # 2: There are two ways most people who encounter this blog end up doing so; either by dialing up the blog directly or by seeing my blog posts at indieWIRE's Blogs page (under Blogs We Love) - which carries a portion of each of my entries on their Blogs

check it out here . they say they are awesome. UPDATE: looks like they haven't blogged since May '06, maybe that project is on the back burner. so here's the company's website if you want to find out more about them. they offer "marketing services to independent films and documentaries." - sujewa

i am posting this as a part of the Beats & Film blog-a-thon , happening 4/27 - 9/6 in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the publication of Kerouac's On The Road There is an article at Sense of Cinema about beat generation artists & their relationship with independent/underground filmmaking of the time. The article is called "A brief introduction to beat (in) film" , written by Jack Sargeant in 2000. Here are a few lines: "In late '50s and early '60s America the beat experiment in film was primarily linked to the emergence of underground film (a.k.a. New American Cinema). Perhaps the most famous beat film was created by two young artists, the painter Alfred Lesley and the photographer Robert Frank, who began to collaborate with Jack Kerouac on an idea for a film adaptation of a short play by Kerouac entitled The Beat Generation or The New Amaraen Church. The film - eventually entitled Pull My Daisy (1959) - was cast with leading members of the bea

On September 5, 1957, Jack Kerouac's novel On The Road was published. The book was controversial in its time, but is now considered an American classic, and is taught in high school. The book's focus on travel, exotic religion & philosophy, jazz, sex, and the lives of several unconventional young writers was considered rebellious and the book has been popular with segments of several generations of youth. The initial wave of youth who were seemingly reflective of the kind of people Kerouac wrote about were dubbed The Beat Generation by the mainstream press of the time. :: How is that film adaptation of On The Road coming along anyway? :: Beats & Film Blog-A-Thon To celebrate the occasion, let's do a Beats & Film blog-a-thon. Post something about an instance where a Beat writer or something significantly related to the Beats and cinema comes together (Allen Ginsburg in a movie, a Kerouac type character in an episode of Quantum Leap, film by Robert Frank with a fe

Read all about the Sarah Jacobson Film Grant at Anthony Kaufman's blog . Or go directly to the web page for the grant, at Free History Project . - Sujewa

Twenty and thirtysomething (& slightly younger & slightly older) indie filmmakers have been making movies about or inspired by events in their lives and their friends lives since, oh, about the early 1980's or before (when was Return of the Secaucus Seven made? maybe Permanent Vacation and Downtown 81 are better examples). But, right now it is cool that a handful of filmmakers who are friends with each other are getting their blogger friends to write about them & their movies under the banner of Mumblecore. A DIY filmmaking & self-distribution friendly promotion model that can be used by other groups of filmmakers and their friends to make their films stand out from the pack of no-budget indies that come out each year at festivals or on DVD or through DIY screenings. Mumblecore crosses into print in a pretty big way, I think, with this Filmmaker Magazine article . My favorite Mumblecore movies so far are: The Puffy Chair, Mutual Appreciation, Dance Party USA, i

A Conversation with DC Based Humanitarian Activist & Punk Author Mark Andersen By Sujewa Ekanayake [from 2001, re-posted here as a part of the Humanitarian Activism Blog-A-Thon project ] On a warm, sunny July afternoon in 2001, I visited the Washington, DC based humanitarian activist, punk and author Mark Andersen (and his cat Demo) in order to learn more about Mark’s activist work. Mark is a founding member of the punk activist collective Positive Force. He has also worked for the Washington Peace Center and has volunteered with Helping Individual Prostitutes Survive (HIPS). At the time of this interview he was doing outreach work for the Emmaus Services for the Aging, helping to bring about an artist/activist center called the Flemming Center and was a recently published author. Mark’s book "Dance Of Days: Two Decades Of Punk In The Nation’s Capital" (co-authored by Mark Jenkins) was published by Soft Skull Press in early 2001. The following conversation touches on many

All these wars & fighting & killing around the planet is making it difficult for us to be happy. So, those of us interested in peace must speak up, talk, tell, push, yell, maneuver & force combatants and killers and other people who use violence to try to achieve their objectives to stop. So, a project: eternal anti-violence blog-a-thon: people around the planet blogging about ending violence, celebrating anti-violence success stories, blogging about great strategies and examples - courses of action that take people away from killing & maiming & violence as a conflict resolution tool. Also blogging about related issues: ending poverty, hunger, etc. - dealing with stuff that leads to frustration & violence. This project might lead to some good things. Project starts today. Open ended, no closing date set at the moment. I am going to blog about the topic as often as I can, several times a week. If you post something related to ending wars/