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

If spending many minutes at a time reading people attack & defend Mumblecore in various blogs, also contributing to the same discussion, is - on the diy filmmaker fun scale - a 1.5 (out of 10), then showing your movie at a new Brooklyn art gallery (where some people come out to see a previously unheard of movie on a Friday night) is at least an 8, maybe a 9. DETAILS The gallery - Aeon Logic - is four months old and is experimenting with showing movies. Actually today's DNO screening was experiment 1 & it was a success according to the gallery owner Rachael Afolabi (also I agree that it was a success - we ran out of good chairs - granted, there was only about 9 chairs (a new batch of chairs are on order), but I was expecting about 6 people at this relatively under-publicized event at a new screening location (i spent most of my publicity work energy on the IFBRT premiere on 2/17 , the more important of the two screening this month) - overall the flick had about 13 or so au

It's a free screening, get all the info. here & come celebrate the upcoming Day of Love (and by that I mean Valentines Day), DIY film style, in Brooklyn! Date Number One at Aeon Logic Art Gallery, Fri 2/13, 7 PM, FREE . - Sujewa

Aside from the few film critics who became filmmakers in the past, my generation of filmmakers - the blog generation of filmmakers - the many filmmakers who started blogs in order to promote their work and other work that they enjoy, & then ended up in the role of film critics or reviewers even for a short while - even for a short, unpaid while - may come to realize a couple of things. One would be: you can be a filmmaker and be a part of the world of the filmmaker, or you can be a film critic, but you can't do both well at the same time - or it is very difficult to do both at the same time. Because, if you honestly critique films by filmmaker friends of yours or other filmmakers that you may one day have to work with - some of those filmmaker friends of yours may not be friends after you've published your reviews. An easy - or simple - way to remain a good filmmaker is to not take on the work of film critics or reviewers. An easy or simple way to be a good film critic is t

For sheer spectacle, I've been following the comments at Glenn Kenny's post/article re: Joe Swanberg's movies (let me get my take on the films & the maker out of the way quickly: Swanberg is very productive, Mumblecore is a good way to generate publicity for low-budget/no-star movies, I am not a fan of KOTM or LOL, however, did somewhat enjoy HTTS - some characters had funny moments - I think that's about it - oh, also, it is cool that the M-core crowd has embraced Barry Jenkins - I am sure MfM benefited from it), anyway, this latest comment from AlexJones (at the end of PAGE 4!!!??? of comments) is kinda explosive/feels explosive ('cause it attacks many indie scene makers?), here's a part of it: "First, Matt Dentler rode the Mumblecore hype to a job at Cinetic Rights Management and needed to continue to generate this hype in order to legitimize his hiring and raise his profile with companies like Amazon. This year his replacement, Janet Pierson, has p

One Way Productions is releasing a basic/no-frills version of Cookies & Cream, Carter, & Uptown on 3/1 - more at One Way blog .

Week of Wonders blog asked me a few questions, James Lipton style, check it out here . Thanks for the interview WoW !

Get all the info. re: Ryan Andrew Balas's debut feature Sandcastles & the DVD at One Way Community blog.

Check out the post at The Obenson Report (where Tambay links to his original article that was posted on an NPR site). However, in 2009, what exactly is a studio? Every aspect of the motion picture production & distribution industry can be hired or rented to produce or distribute a film or several films at whatever scale the client wants to work on (from a small art house type release - something several indie filmmakers have done with service deals - to releasing a movie on 3000 theaters using distribution services rented from other companies - as George Lucas does). So, maybe all anyone or any group of people who wants to behave as a "film studio" needs is the money to hire the services that they need in order to make & distribute films on the desired scale. And after that, or if it is somehow better to do it that way or if not enough movie theaters exist for their product, a company or organization could build new theaters, new distribution networks, etc. So, the g

Long post at Amir's blog re: two main items - films he's made in the past few years & inadequacies in what kind of indie films have received attention from some (or many perhaps) indie film festivals & media. Here's a quote from material about his films: " So, in anticipation to the release of my new feature film “whale” i will be releasing a good portion of my body of work on the web, to reuse the phrase, in full view. I will be working backwards, from newest to oldest, one a week (or in small groups), starting later this afternoon. Of course, some films are already available, so you can go and check them out on here . I will provide a brief history lesson, so that a context is built around the film. With the climate of the Indie scene, and especially in light of the last few years in the micro-budget world, many artist who have been working under the radar, both on purpose, and out of misfortunes are losing there own past. So, as individual artist and write

We had a couple of minutes of technical difficulties today when host Tambay Obenson's call dropped out & then I got off the show to call back & co-host Brandon Wilson had to carry the show all by himself while Tambay & I came back on the show - but anyway, that bit of unexpected excitement aside - a pretty solid show - here's the official description from The Obenson Report : "Podcast #43 . TRT: 60 Minutes . Episode Notes: Brandon Wilson ( GeniusBastard.com ) and I spent the hour talking to Sergio Mims, co-founder of the Black Harvest Film Festival (celebrating its 15th year), and Sujewa Ekanayake, writer/director of Date Number one and Indie Film Blogger Road Trip , as well as editor of DIYFilmmaker.blogspot.com ." Check out the podcast at The Obenson Report . Thanks Tambay & Brandon for having me on the show to promote D.I.Y. (do-it-yourself)filmmaking & self-distribution as well as the upcoming screening of Date Number One ( 2/13, Bed-Stuy