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

AJ Schnack in Silver Spring, MD, June 2007 Schnack speaking after receiving an award from the SilverDocs film festival for his film Kurt Cobain About A Son :: In June I spoke with director AJ Schnack about his wildly creative documentary Kurt Cobain About A Son ( blog , MySpace ), which is about the deceased Nirvana singer Kurt Cobain. The film uses elements of recorded conversations/Cobain speaking and visuals from three Washington state cities to reveal aspects of Cobain's life that may be unfamiliar to many audience members. See my review of the movie here . This interview happened during the 2007 SilverDocs film festival in Silver Spring, Maryland, about an hour before About A Son won the Cinematic Vision Feature Award from the fest. . Sujewa : AJ, thanks a lot for taking some time out for this interview. So, how did you get into filmmaking & why have you focused thus far on punk/indie-rock related acts? . AJ : I studied journalism in college, mostly because it seemed l

Happy August everyone! At long last DVDs of my '06 completed movie Date Number One will be available for sale by Wednesday August 15, 2007 - in a mere 14 days or less. I want to keep showing the film theatrically for months to come so initially the DVD will be available from a few places on the web & a few retail stores in the non-web world. Some people have been hearing about this movie for well over a year now, so for those people, the time to see the movie on DVD is very near. Will have details on extras, packaging, music, regions, etc. in the coming days. Cost: $12, US postage paid by yours truly/Wild Diner Films. Customers from other countries please add $2. To order the DVD: Send a check or money order for $12 (for US based customers) or $14 (for customers from other countries), made out to Sujewa Ekanayake to: Wild Diner Films 10408 Montgomery Ave. Kensington, MD 20895 If you have any questions re: a DVD order e-mail me at: wilddiner@aol.com . Or call me at 240-354-3394

Check out this most excellent Rolling Stone article about AJ Schnack's wildly creative doc Kurt Cobain About A Son. I am transcribing a long interview of Schnack that I did back in June at SilverDocs, should have it up here this week. Make sure you set aside some of your indiefilmblog reading time for that goodie, otherwise you might find youself mysteriously sad down the road, and we don't want that, do we? - Sujewa

Check out iW's Eugene's letter here , and add your thoughts and constructive ideas to the comments. Here are my comments (this is the spelling errors free version :). Ms. Cho is Julianne Cho, Associate Commissioner at NYC Mayor's Office of Film, Theatre & Broadcasting (MOFTB). :: Dear Ms. Cho, It seems that the proper intent of the new MOFTB rules would be to regulate large budget commercial filmmaking activity. However, the proposed rules, as they stand now, severely restrict ordinary citizen's free speech conducted through the mediums of film, video & photography, & thus would invite legal challenges and lawsuits. If the MOFTB is interested in refining its policies towards big budget (a budget level could be identified in the rules to clarify what big budget is - over $250,000, over a million $s, etc.) filmmaking, the rules can specifically mention that and should specifically mention that amateur & low budget/"no-budget" filmmaking, video ma

Very interesting (& of course very cool for the families of the prisoners). Reportedly the EU has been trying to get those prisoners (5 Bulgarian nurses & a Palestinian doctor) released for 8 years. Read all about it at the Washington Times . - Sujewa

By Glenn O'Brien at Times Online , check it out here . Here is a sample: "It’s hard to imagine today, but back then a Warhol film was a glimpse of a new world, a strange, weird, compelling, funny, scary world. Warhol film was for the initiated, and so it was also initiatory. When I was in college in Washington DC, we once drove miles to an obscure theatre in Maryland to see Bike Boy. After ten minutes it occurred to us that it wasn’t Bike Boy at all; it was a male porno film. Bike Boy was opening the next night. To see Warhol films you had to go out of your way. Not this summer, though, when, to mark 20 years since the artist’s death, there are ample opportunities to catch Warhol’s films in seasons around the country (see list below)." Read the whole thing here . - Sujewa

Amir Motlagh during a screening visit to MD in '05. photo copyright 2005 sujewa ekanayake Amir Motlagh is the director of the 2007 completed short film Knock.Knock and the upcoming features Whale (in post-production) and Micro (in production). To date Motlagh has completed over half a dozen short films and have screened them at festivals and other events. He is also a musician who just released a new album. In early June I spoke (via the magic of e-mail) with the filmmaker re: his current, previous & future projects, being Iranian-American and a few related matters. Sujewa: Amir, can you please 1) list all of your previously completed & released films briefly (up to My Break Ups let's say, that's what you just finished the last time I interviewed you , in 2005) and, 2 ) then take some time and introduce us to each of the current or very recently completed films (post-My Break Ups), including Knock. Knock, that you are working on; titles & descriptions, along w

Here's one page of photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tozzer/sets/72157601051682283/ 95 photos in this Camera Wars set: http://www.flickr.com/photos/i-m-bitter/sets/72157601049199582/ Will post up more links later today. Go Picture New York ! RELATED - Public Comments re: the issue (proposed massive restrictions on photography & film in NYC) by Jenny Livingston, Amy Taubin & more, at the Picture New York site . - Sujewa

the venue ready to go DVD player, with 2 RCA to XLR cables for audio playback/the speakers amp audio cables from the DVD player plugged into the sound board For many low-budget DIY filmmakers, working with distribution companies, regular (up & running on a regular basis) movie theaters, and even working with festivals for screenings is not always/some times hardly ever, an option. Thus, it is a good idea to know how to produce a week long run of your feature at an alternative venue, and about some of the gear that you will need to use, and the costs of things. First, theatrical exhibition (or theatrical type exhibition, since in this case we did not use an actual movie theater) will most likely lose you money, even if each screening is sold out. Why? Because in order to get each screening to sell out a lot of work needs to be done (hours = $s), even if by volunteers, plus most likely you will have to advertise, that along with dozens of other minor costs that can add up, will m

I just did a long interview for an upcoming (September) exciting sounding web site owned by an indie film distributor. They wanted a photo of me, so I spent a couple of hours yesterday taking photos of myself. This was the winning shot. Will be used for press requests until I get a better one. Will post the link to the interview when it shows up on the web. - Sujewa

Yeah, we should all (film/video makers & photographers, other fans of those mediums, everyone else in the US & world who might one day want to visit New York City & take some photos, shoot some video) work to get the insane proposal to severely restrict ordinary people's ability to practice image making in NYC defeated. Here's all the info. re: the rally today & info. on other methods of protest, plus all the background info. re: the issue, from Picture New York : " Friday’s First Amendment rally at Union Square Please join the Filmmaker/Photographer contingent at this Friday’s First Amendment rally at Union Square. Recently proposed regulations seriously threaten the rights of photographers and filmmakers to operate in NYC, and they could go into effect as soon as this August. Other laws already restrict our rights to parade, dance, meet, bike, shout, and assemble. Join performance artists Reverend Billy and the Stop Shopping Gospel Choir, the Rude Mechani

This time last year I was focused on showing Date Number One in NYC (the screening at Pioneer in late August '06). That was fun. I had a good time taking a couple of trips to NYC & hanging out there - kind of like a vacation type thing. So, August '07 is rolling around and I am thinking of NYC again. Not ready to show DNO in NYC again - that will have to be in the fall at the earliest - but I've come up with a good excuse to take a trip (or two) & hang out in NYC in August: The Secret Lives of NYC Indie Film Bloggers Project Well, the name is extra exciting but in reality I will just be doing some live interviews with some of my favorite NYC based bloggers who write about indie film. I am going to talk to them about topics other than indie film- for the most part. This idea evolved out of the desire to create an iW blogs page blogger meetup . Producing that event feels like it will be too much work for August '07, so I am going to do this similar - &

Just heard about this on the Tonight Show. Click here to read a blog post about it. Well, Sicko might have significantly helped at least one family. - Sujewa

7/26/07 note: I should have taken more photos, specially at Q & A segment following the screenings, specially on opening night. Next time. Below are a few photos from the 7/12 - 18 Date Number One run. All photos Copyright 2007 Sujewa Ekanayake/Wild Diner Films. Will add a few more notes links to this post later today. A few friends of Fritz (DNO actor & crew, 4th from left), on closing night of the run - Wed 7/18. I think this photo, of me at the entrance to the theater space, was taken on Tue 7/16. That's an image from Story 1. There are people in the theater, in the front rows, even if you can't seem them in this photo :) A few more audience members from the closing night - Wed 7/18. More people on closing night. That's Fritz on L, Stephen J. on R, working the door. Main entrance to the venue. The Venue. Ready for the next show. Me after the first night's screening. That's Mike C. & Stephen J. working the door. DNO poster at town's sign,

Here's a part of an update I received today from the folks behind the movie Afro-Punk : "AFRO-PUNK Is premiering at FUGI ROCK FESTIVAL on the 28th JULY. Asia's largest rock festival has chosen to make Afro-punk one of only three films screened at the festival this year." Visit the Afro-Punk website here . - Sujewa