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This year marks the first appearance of the Austin Asian American Film Festival . From the fest's site: "After years of hard work, the Austin Asian American Film Foundation has arrived. Our unique foundation promises to bring the best in Asian and Asian American cinema to Austin. Texas may seem like an odd location for an Asian film foundation, but we are the fastest growing minority in an already lively and vibrant Asian community. We are supported by the University of Texas, Austin Film Society and many Asian organization. This October we are proud to present: The 1st Annual Austin Asian American Film Festival will be held on October 9-12th, 2008. Our four day event will have exciting screenings, thought provoking panels, great parties and many filmmakers in attendance. This year we are proud to announce our festival will be held at the Alamo Drafthouse. Recently voted “Best Theatre in America”, the Alamo takes our festival to the next level!" I have a perhaps a difficu...

It's that time of the year again folks; the "sleepy"? town of Silver Spring, MD turns into a pretty gigantic celebration of documentary films, doc filmmaking, & doc filmmakers. I'll post links to all my posts about SilverDocs '08 on this page, so that we may locate them with ease in the future. 6/27 update : This page is missing a few links, will add them next week. In the meantime, click on the blog's title, go to the top of the blog & scroll down to see a few SilverDocs entries. SilverDocs 2008 posts North American Premiere of Generation 68 at SilverDocs - 5/28/08 SilverDocs '08 films - 5/28/08 - Sujewa

You can't take three steps in the indie/art/specialty film blog world these days without running into a post about the glorious & revolutionary days of '68 Paris. So, for us kids who were not yet born when all that happened, the new doc Generation 68 might be interesting & perhaps even educational. From the SilverDocs site : "Simon Brook’s raucous exploration of the pivotal year of the 1960s is a tale of many cities––London, Paris, New York and Prague––and a record of revolution. The music was fabulous, fashion was fun, sex was safe, and flower power blossomed. Meanwhile, American cities burned with race riots, Martin Luther King was assassinated two months before Robert F. Kennedy was killed, the flowers of a Prague spring were trampled by Soviet tanks, and a war raged on in Vietnam. Brook is most interested in the youthful exuberance that bubbled to the top of the seemingly placid social status quo, revealing the roiling conflicts of racial injustice, sexual p...

Check out the SilverDocs '08 offerings (if you have not looked over the list already), posted at Film Panel Notetaker blog. You can also visit the official SilverDocs site for more info. on the films. I am going to get a chance to check out some SilverDocs '08 shorts soon. Will write about them next week. - Sujewa

Jonathan Marlow's wake up call to some indie filmmakers is getting read & commented on over at GreenCine Daily . Here is my comment re: the post, might be of interest & use to some indie filmmakers in dealing with the challenge of distribution & making money from distribution: "Lots of people check out indie films at festivals, so, that's a positive starting point; people are willing to pay money & give time to watching indie movies in a theater type setting under certain conditions/at festivals. Groups of indie filmmakers could work together to create new festivals; ones where some of the ticket sales $s can go to the filmmakers. Another production/distribution option is to approach indie filmmaking & distribution not from a Hollywood or indiewood model, but from an independent music model; the artists make the work, tour & bring the work to audiences at whatever venues (clubs, theaters, etc.), and a home version of the work (DVD in the indie fil...

Michael Guillen interviews Peter X. Feng, University of Delaware associate professor of film and author of Identities in Motion: Asian American Film and Video. From the interview : "Guillén: Though I’m aware that you were trying to focus on the history of Asian representation and—as you say—the Asian experience in more or less classic Hollywood film, I’m curious what your thoughts are on some of the more contemporary Asian American filmmakers like Gregg Araki or Eric Byler , or Asian directors like Ang Lee ? Feng: I have different thoughts about all those filmmakers. I really love Gregg Araki’s films. Mysterious Skin was amazing. I love his earlier films and I’ve shown his films when I teach my film class; but, I thought Mysterious Skin—without compromising what made him completely unique and bizarre—was more a professional film. Eric Byler is a really intelligent filmmaker who really understands contemporary sexual politics between Asian Americans. That’s what his films have t...

Time to take a little break from The DC (area) & take a quick trip out to the city of cities to hang out, network, etc. I'll be in NYC this weekend, w/ a bunch of Date Number One screener DVDs, if any filmmakers/bloggers/film fans/others want to hang out, let me know . I think I'll have the most time available for hanging out on Sat 5/31. - Sujewa

The movies I planned on showing at Lo-Def/Jackie's Back Room will now be shown at Capital City Microcinema/Kensington Row Bookshop . Jackie's is interested in showing only shorts in the future (easier to incorporate food service, etc.) and I want to show a lot of indie features, thus the June - September screenings had to be moved to another venue. I am still planning on swinging by Jackie's often for the yummy food & to see what kind of art/entertainment events they'll have going on in the Back Room. Capital City Microcinema will happen on Fri nights, once a month. At the moment I am working on shows for June - September. June show on Fri, June 27, 7 PM, several short films, info. soon. July - September shows will be features. Same deal as Lo-Def for filmmakers; $100 screening fee for showing a feature, $25 for shorts/participating in a shorts program by screening one or more shorts. CCM line up for the coming months & completed site coming soon. - Sujewa

From about 1992, the year I dropped out of film school, 'till about 1998, the year I shot my first feature, I went to see a lot of indie/punk bands in DC, read zines, hung out with people involved in the DC area indie scene, even worked briefly at Dante's (restaurant run by DC punk people) & Black Cat (one of the few large indie rock clubs in DC). And I still try to keep up with what my favorite bands & labels from the 90's are up to these days. So, to me the indie music world is a real and working thing, not an experiment. So it is very easy for me to translate elements of the indie music culture into my filmmaking & distribution work. The CD = the DVD, the live show = theatrical type or large screen screening at a venue, the zine = the blog, concern with politics & the well being of the world = same, etc. The business model, or one business model that would work well for real indie film is the indie rock model. In both cases artists are creating wo...

Yes, it's a promo piece for a company that indiewood company Focus Features does business with, but nevertheless, the article is about an interesting development in Mexico; from the article : " "We realized that the success of [Alfonso Cuaron, Alejandro Gonazalez Innaritu and Guillemo del Toro] was a special moment, but then there was nothing happening on the ground in Mexico. There was no grass-roots [activity]. So, Canana can use the power [Gael and Diego] have as stars and public figures and be useful to the industry." " Read the rest of the article at FilmInFocus . - Sujewa

Global Film Initiative sounds like a very interesting distributor. From Guillen's post : " Whisky is one of many films supported and distributed by The Global Film Initiative, a U.S.-based distributor with one of the most dynamic distribution models in today's international film market. Co-founded in 2003 by Susan Weeks Coulter and Noah Cowan [of the Toronto International Film Festival], the Initiative touts itself as a "full service" distributor of films from Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East, offering production grants to filmmakers and a multi-platform release that includes a full year of high profile screenings through one of the most lauded touring festivals in the U.S. and Canada, Global Lens ." Read the rest of the long post here . Thanks GreenCine Daily for the link. - Sujewa

On the program for this Saturday's Rooftop Films event is At the Death House Door . From the RF site: " "At the Death House Door," directed by Steve James and Peter Glibert (the director and producers of “Hoop Dreams”), is a gripping, fascinating, powerful film about Pickett, about a wrongly-executed man named Carlos De Luna and his family, and about the tragic moral mistake that is the death penalty. Pickett's character unfolds with a stately grace. Being an old-fashioned Texan, he's reluctant to reveal his emotions, a trait which only makes them burn with more ferocity as you see them shine through, as you watch an amazing evolution of a man's feelings and ideology. It’s a rare and stunning transformation to see in a documentary, or in life in general." More here . Even though I am for the death penalty ('cause some evil people need to die) in some cases (as long as the right person gets killed), I am still looking forward to checking out...

The Angry Filmmaker Kelley Baker advices indie filmmakers not to get too hung up on having the latest camera or editing program for their movies. From the post : "Film cameras have been around forever and they all still shoot at 24 fps. I can take an Arri, an Aaton, a CP, or an old Éclair and run a roll of film through it and it’ll look great. I can also shoot with a Canon XL1 or a Sony PD150 and it will look great as well. As long as I light it correctly." And: "It is the same thing with software and editing equipment. Find an editing program that you like and learn it backward and forward. Up grade only when you have too. Remember, many classic films were edited with a razor blade and tape." Read the rest of the post here . - Sujewa