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

Read all about it at the ATL 365 blog . Now that Facebook is getting into film, I guess I should do something with the barely started but not touched in months Facebook account/page of mine . - Sujewa

So how did I end up reading about the relationship between gun control & genocide tonight? Let's see, I saw an episode ( Resistance , from Season 2) of Battlestar Galactica - one that I had missed in my initial binge of BSG watching a few weeks ago - where Admiral (or is it Commander?) Adama - basically the head guy on the ship - is shot, & is recovering from surgery & the temporary guy in command - Tigh - suspends the civilian government of the fleet & institutes martial law. Then, when the civilian fleet refuses to go along Tigh sends Marines to a civilian ship to enforce his orders, resulting in civilian deaths. This got me thinking about the strange role militaries play (often protectors, but can be misused by evil politicians or other not so great leaders), and also about the relationship between civil/non military governments and the militaries. Anyway, some research web searches later I ended up on this page - with a chart (scroll down to the middle of t

Check out some shorts from the Rooftop Films summer festival series at IFC's site . More about the films: "The films posted are an eclectic mix of both live and animated narratives as well documentaries. All of these films are selections from the Rooftop Films summer festival series, which means that each week three more shorts will be posted on IFC.com available for viewing." Check them out . - Sujewa

Apparently there is a guidebook called Washington, DC From A to Z out there and my '99 released feature/my first feature (shot in 1 day on 16 MM color, 70 mins. long) Wild Diner is mentioned in it. Check out the mention at this link . Pretty cool, thanks goes out to the authors, needs to get me a copy of that book. Wild Diner is not in distribution at the moment, but, perhaps in the future it will make it on to a DVD as an extra item. Some Wild Diner trivia related to a more recent & much better received indie movie: the DP of Wild Diner was Sean Williams , who also shot - years later - Ron Bronstein's Frownland . Williams also appears in a brief role in Mary Bronstein's Yeast . For Wild Diner Williams had to work under some very difficult conditions (like shooting a whole feature script in one day in a living room badly made up to look like a diner! :), and I don't think he was very happy with his work on that movie - so he was credited using a pseudonym in the fl

In the multi-page article From Indie Chic to Indie, Sheesh Ann Hornaday takes a look at the history of indie film - from Charlie Chaplin to Jim Jarmusch to Barry Jenkins - but mostly the article is a protest against the mainstreaming of quirk through indiewood movies, check it out at the Washington Post . Was a great Sunday morning read. - Sujewa

Saw this short at Lincoln Blogs , pretty good:

Yeast was one of my favorite films at this year's Maryland Film Festival . A little weird, action packed, somewhat disturbingly funny, in glorious tight close up hand held digital video - check it out through this post at Matt Dentler's blog - Yeast definitely will not put you to sleep. For some post-movie watching reading/discussion, here's my interview with Yeast director Mary Bronstein. - Sujewa

I just posted up 2 used - like new DVDs for sale at my Amazon store Wild Diner Films : Down By Law - Criterion - $15 The 400 Blows - Criterion - $14.50 If you've been wanting to buy those DVDs, check out the links above. I've been selling books, for work/the day job, for a couple of months now through Amazon and have been very impressed with the results. So now I will also be selling art, indie, foreign DVDs & related stuff & other media products (including my own DVDs - as soon as they are ready :) through Amazon. Just started my Amazon store , but should have a few interesting items there soon. Update: 8:29 PM - both of the DVDs listed above sold today/within the first day that they were listed, so, I added a couple more used DVDs to my Amazon store: In Praise of Love by Godard - $9, and Van Sant's Drugstore Cowboy - $9.50. Looks like some items will sell fast on Amazon - way cool. Time to unpack all my boxes from the move (& also go shopping for new merc

New movie Orphans is now available on DVD from Carnivalesque Films - only $19.99 - get it, support indie film yo. Here's the trailer:

The summer before I went to film school (I think) there were lines of people outside a small movie theater in Dupont Circle in DC waiting to check out Slacker. When I finally saw the movie in Chicago a couple of months later I thought it was kinda neat. Since then, specially in the 90's - I think I've seen this movie on VHS fully or in part over a dozen times (great thing about Slacker you can drop in on it at any point & then leave when you get tired of it - not plot driven, each scene is its own story). Here's Slacker on Hulu:

When I feel like there is too much to do, I read about or check out interviews with the Fugazi dudes - for rest & inspiration - 'cause they've done a LOT of work over the years & a lot of interesting work too - along with like the I don't know 80% of support/routine/maintenance work that needs to be done in order to accomplish the 20% that is interesting to other people/consumers/stuff of DIY art/entertainment glory, no doubt. Anyway, saw this entertaining interview on YouTube a couple of days ago - was a nice little break from lots of not-too-exciting but necessary work:

Check it out . From the review: "There is an artistry at work here that recalls European cinema from the 1970s or early 1980s. Which is interesting, for that works in conjunction with Russo-Young’s main goal: to contemplate how the past continues to reverberate in the present. Watching the film, an interesting question arises: was Russo-Young influenced by her own childhood or by films from that era? The answer appears to be both. In the best way possible, she and her actresses have found a way to cloak the emotions of their own past histories in an artificially constructed story." Read the rest here .

The Independent's got a state by state links article re: getting health insurance for artists - check it out . Here's the intro to the article : "As freelancers, many members of the creative community -- writers, artists, and filmmakers -- often struggle to find the best health insurance for themselves and their families. Since artists typically do not work as employees, they are not eligible for insurance through a company. And it's not always an option to tag onto a partner's or parent's policy. But there are still plenty of options out there, if you know how to find them. Emerging and veteran artists may not realize that, in fact, they are eligible as artists to join certain organizations, and thus obtain a variety of more affordable health insurance options. So The Independent put together this list, broken down by state with the aim of helping artists learn their insurance options." The rest here . - Sujewa

From Matt Zoller Seitz: