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

* SUNSET PARK AT NIGHT from Sujewa Ekanayake on Vimeo .

In 2014 when I screened the then current version of my feature Breakthrough Weekend in NYC Village Voice reviewed it. For the most part a positive review. Ignore the first paragraph about image quality, perhaps the reviewer received a bad DVD screener, the image and sound quality of the movie is excellent. People will be able to see for themselves in late July of this year when I release the movie on VOD. Also the story about the German couple mentioned in the review may not be in the final version of the movie because we were not able to film a part of that story. Otherwise, great review :) From the review - "...Breakthrough Weekend has audacity and poker-faced wit on its side; its wayward pacing and peculiar rhythms recall early Jim Jarmusch, though it has a New York–centric spirit all its own." More - "It’s all pretty weird, and yet not as weird as it sounds. Ekanayake’s deadpan approach makes every event seem comically reasonable, especially for New York, a

Shot this recently as a test project for establishing some solid possibilities for my new feature film Werewolf Ninja Philosopher's look, music, cinematography approach, mood and more.  Check it out: SUNSET PARK AT NIGHT from Sujewa Ekanayake on Vimeo .

First, let's get the more fun of the 2 Do items out of the way - the trailer! * * * Alright, down to the details :) - Who is Scout Tafoya?  Until a few hours ago I did not know that he made movies.  But he said he released 6 features in the last year/recently.  That's some hyper productivity (even in this digi-camcorder-blogging-24/7-work-age).  I did run into Scout briefly at a party for Matt Zoller Seitz's puppet sci-fi movie Space Rabbit last year - but I did not know Scout made movies.  Alright, the official intro to Scout as a filmmaker & critic, from Roger Ebert site - "Scout Tafoya is a blogger and filmmaker living in Doylestown, PA. He writes for and edits the arts blog Apocalypse Now and directs both feature length and short films, many of which are free to watch at honorszombiefilms.com . His list of peculiar achievements include teaching a class on the cultural importance of zombie movies while in high school, lecturing on Dystopian sci-fi

* Press Conference - LE LIVRE D IMAGE de Jean-Luc GODARD

Are Film Festivals the Future of Cinema? A Conversation with Locarno Festival Artistic Director Carlo Chatrian from Acropolis Cinema on Vimeo . From the Vimeo page - "As the commercial distribution of art cinema from around the world continues to drastically shrink—not only in the U.S., but everywhere—the main question for audiences and lovers of this cinema is a simple one: How can we see it? Movies don’t exist without an audience, and a movie is never really a movie until it’s presented on the big screen. This is where the film festival steps in. Festivals are where art cinema thrives, where artists and audiences can meet. Is this the future of cinema, and how can festivals make this future exciting and sustainable? In the above video, filmed on April 7, 2018, Locarno Festival Artistic Director Carlo Chatrian sits down with Locarno in Los Angeles co-artistic director Robert Koehler to discuss what makes Locarno one of the world's great and most adventurous film festiva

Art as Film In the past people took Hollywood and other film and re-categorized it as art.  That is a valid way to go - as underneath the epic financial and business structure needed for Hollywood filmmaking and distribution, there is a lot of creativity in the actual movies.  The opposite can also be done.  An art project that ends up creating a work that resembles, in some ways, a Hollywood or other film, is also valid.  Art as film.  The main difference being that an art project does not need to be made according to Hollywood rules or independent filmmaking rules.  It can use work methods inspired by paintings (one creator typically), or experimental film (non-narrative, one creator typically) or art film (one or more creators, work is made for creative expression purposes primarily).  The art work can be made for $0 or $1 million or more - whatever money the artist has available or whatever money the art project/the film requires.  Once the work is completed it can be distributed

Charlie Ahearn (Wild Style), Sara Driver (Boom For Real), Jessica Green (Maysles programmer) * BOOM FOR REAL 5/2/18 Sneak Preview screening at Maysles Cinema, NYC - event notes I had not watched a movie at Maysles Cinema before so I was excited to go see Sara Driver's new documentary BOOM FOR REAL , about artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, on Wednesday 5/2/18 night.  I was glad that I got there early - the event sold out.  Maysles Cinema is a small venue but when I sat down I was very impressed with the size of the screen.  I am showing my new movie Werewolf Ninja Philosopher at Maysles 10/25-31 of this year, so it was nice to see that I would be screening at a great venue.  All of the seats got filled, and the Maysles staff had to break out some folding chairs for the overflow crowd, and then the event started. Maysles programmer Jessica Green gave a great introduction to the show. Here are some thoughts I had about the movie: I had seen a couple of docume

So says the Whitney - https://whitney.org/Exhibitions/Film .  That's a lot :). 

Indie film has gotten kind of boring.  That revolution may be over (it succeeded well).  At present (and maybe always, since the 1980s) indie or independent film is an attempt to do what Hollywood is doing but at a low budget, and also it was an attempt (successful) to expand the type of stories that were being told, and to add greater diversity to the movies (also successful as of now).  And was also a path to break into Hollywood (maybe not everyone wants that.  hollywood is interesting, but also seems like a lot of work and money spent and dealing with a ton of problems to produce a limited range of products).  But, by and large, indie film was always a Hollywood facing project (there are a few exception).  What if the next wave of indie filmmakers looked in the other direction (but remain open to working with whoever wants to work w/ them - Hollywood, Netflix, Amazon, art galleries, small movie theaters, non-profits, ad agencies, ordinary people with interesting stories, community

Porcupine Lake trailer: * About the movie - " Thirteen-year-old Bea (Charlotte Salisbury) wants a best friend more than anything else, and when she meets rambunctious Kate (Lucinda Armstrong Hall), the pair form an unexpected bond that will change both of their lives forever. Ingrid Veninger’s PORCUPINE LAKE takes the time to explore the feelings and experiences of young girls with a thoughtful honesty that sets the film apart from most contemporary fiction, creating a story sensitive to the secret world of her characters, set during a fateful summer when adulthood has not yet arrived, but childhood is quickly vanishing."  From page linked below. Screening info for 4/28 & 29 are here -  http://montclairfilm.org/events/porcupine-lake/ Here are a couple of interviews with Ingrid Veninger.  One recent, about the new film:   And this one is older, from 2012, long interview about Veninger's approach to filmmaking and more - * - S

Click on the images below for the full episode 478 featuring all the guests.  Or see the YouTube video segment of Amir Motlagh segment only at bottom of page. *    * Info on the screening at Chicago Filmmakers here . - S