American Messiah & Chris Hansen in Kensington, MD on Thu July 6

Texas based indie film director & screenwriting professor Chris Hansen and his funny & excellent movie The Proper Care & Feeding of an American Messiah are coming to the DC area on Thu July 6. The film is about a man who believes that he is a regional Messiah, & his quest to find a special mission from God. Messiah will play at Kensington, MD's Kensington Row Bookshop as a part of the Capital City Microcinema screening series. Read all the
life-changing information below:

The Proper Care & Feeding of An American Messiah
A film by Chris Hansen

Best Feature FILM EXPO TEXAS 2006, Official Selection STIFF Seattle's True Independent Film Festival 2006, Official Selection South Regional INDIE GATHERING Film Festival 2006, Finalist PEC Independent Film Championship 2006, Official Selection MYRTLE BEACH International Film Festival 2006, Official Selection COSMOS International Film & Video Game Festival 2006

" Many of the sequences fire on all cylinders, producing laugh-out-loud results."
- Film Threat

*
Thu July 6
7 PM
The Proper Care and Feeding of an American Messiah
w/ director Chris Hansen
$5
Kensington Row Bookshop
3786 Howard Ave
Kensington, MD 20895
301-949-9416

film's web site: http://theoreticalentertainment.com/american_messiah/

" Chris Hansen's The Proper Care and Feeding of an American Messiah (official website) is a mock documentary that follows Brian (Dustin Olson), a balding thirtysomething who believes that he is a messiah. Not the messiah, Brian persistently reminds the unseen documentary filmmaker (played by the director), but a regionally-selected messiah for a "100-mile radius," Brian estimates. Brian's delusions of grandeur are supported by his younger brother, Aaron, who admires his older brother, and his sister, Miriam, who recognizes Brian's problems but seeks to prevent him from harming himself. The film is structured around a brief interlude in Brian's "career" as he arranges to announce himself and his "higher purpose" to the public at his town's civic center. "
- Chuck Tryon, The Chutry Experiment
Read the rest of this review here: http://chutry.wordherders.net/archives/005174.html

" What makes American Messiah work is its easy, natural feel. At few points, if any, does the star, Dustin Olson, really FEEL like he's "acting". Instead, he feels more improvised and natural, like a real-life deluded guy being interviewed for a documentary."
- J.C. Macek III, WorldsGreatestCritic.com
http://worldsgreatestcritic.com/americanmessiah.html

possible problem w/ blog, checking it now

IF06 opened up on my computer a few minutes ago w/ a lot of junk in some entries & on right panel, checking things out now to make sure all is well.

- Sujewa

Michael "Cocaine Angel" Tully reviews "Date Number One"

It's a brief but very positive review. Check it out here.

Mike came to see the flick at the Sat 6/24 night screening in Kensington. A big thanks goes out to everyone who came & made the event a very fine one.

- Sujewa

LOL coming to NYC in August

LOL will be screening for a week at the PIONEER THEATER in New York City, starting Wednesday, August 23. The film will show at 9PM each night and some of us will attend the screenings on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. This will be the New York Premiere of the film! BUY ADVANCE TICKETS NOW!

"Date Number One" screening # 8: Kensington, MD Sat June 24

DATE NUMBER ONE
http://www.wilddiner.com/
a comedy about several first dates
a movie by sujewa ekanayake

"FIVE really entertaining, fully realized romantic interludes...a shamefully rare achievement"- Tom Kipp, Seattle audience member, former film reviewer for Seattle alternative weekly The Stranger

Sat June 24 7 PM $5
Kensington Row Bookshop
3786 Howard Ave.
Kensington, MD 20895
301.949.9416

Director & some of the stars will attend the screening.

"Heartfelt...poignant...I loved it!"
- Jon Moritsugu, award winning filmmaker

"Date Number One is quite funny...also a subtle, thoughtful film...might be understood as the anti-Crash depiction of life in the city...depicts a comfortably multi-ethnic community...I'd happily recommend it."
- Chuck Tryon, media professor & blogger, The Chutry Experiment blog

Submissions info page link for AMC Select program

The mega gigantic mainstream movie theater company AMC has an indie film friendly initiative called AMC Select. If you want to submit your flick for AMC to consider playing under their Select program, here's the page with the submissions info. Good luck, & I'll see yer flick at the mall theater maybe.

Thanks D.I.Y. distro R & D assistant Allie "the redhead gangster" C. for the link!

- Sujewa

Back to the green template...

... and finishing up the Links to All the IF06 Films project & finishing up Links to Lists of Movie Theaters from Newspaper Showtime Pages project are next. Doing my Blog Admin thing baby. It's hot.

- Sujewa

Green Cine article on real indie films

Green Cine's Head of Acquisitions (if that's not his exact title, it's pretty damn close) Jonathan Marlow writes about several real indie films (independently produced, low budget as opposed to Indiewood/Hollywood produced) and their distribution paths in an entry posted today to the excellent film blog Green Cine Daily. All 3 Maryland New Wave films, including Date Number One, and Bujalski's Mutual Appreciation & several other new indie movies are mentioned.

Read it here.

Thanks!

- Sujewa

Heads Up!!

Dear Pillow/Kissing on the Mouth Fundraiser
Theater: Alamo Downtown



Director: Bryan Poyser & Joe Swanberg
Rating: NR
Runtime: 163min.

EXPLICITLY INDEPENDENT DOUBLE FEATURE: DEAR PILLOW & KISSING ON THE MOUTH
DOWNTOWN, $15 Admission Benefits Filmmakers’ New Project.
DEAR PILLOW dir. Bryan Poyser, 2004, DV, 85 min, NR;
KISSING ON THE MOUTH dir. Joe Swanberg, 2005, DV, 78 min, NR.
Both films contain material of a highly adult nature.

PLEASE NOTE: the first film starts promptly at 6:30pm, so get there early (6pm - 6:15pm) for intros from the directors, a great raffle and more!!!

One is from Austin, one is from Chicago. Both present contemporary sexuality in ways that are frank, funny and might make you blush. Don’t bring your parents but definitely bring your friends and help fund the making of a new short film. Nominated for an Independent Spirit Award and veteran of over 30 film festivals, DEAR PILLOW follows a 17-year-old supermarket bagboy as he befriends a pornography-writing neighbor. This dark mentor helps the boy achieve his adolescent dream – finally getting laid. The Los Angeles Times called it “provocative… witty and perceptive…” and Variety named it “a striking debut.” Chicago filmmaker Joe Swanberg made waves at the 2006 SXSW Film Festival with his highly acclaimed LOL. KISSING ON THE MOUTH is his feature debut. The small cast served as the only crew on the film, an intimate, humorous, no-holds-barred look at sex and infidelity in post-collegiate relationships that features frank dialogue and explicit sex. “A quirky, definitely sexy movie…” said The Boston Phoenix and Film Threat called it “intelligent and honest.” Directors Poyser and Swanberg will be in attendance. Proceeds help fund “Best Birthday Ever,” a short film directed by Poyser and starring Swanberg and Dear Pillow star Rusty Kelley. A ticket also enters you in a raffle where you can win badges to the SXSW Film Festival, the Austin Film Festival and other explicitly fun stuff!

Kinooga Film Financing

Have you guys seen this?
http://kinooga.com/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1

Basically you presell downloads to your film via Kinooga to actually finance the project. Similar concept to foreign presales, but on a smaller scale...

Kinooga lets you raise finances for your film project at any stage of its conception. You could be looking for development money for a script, looking for another few thousands bucks on an overspend, or simply trying to get the cash together to edit what you've already shot.

Interesting concept. My guess would be though there are a lot more people looking for money than there are people investing.

Check out their site for detailed info.

-Blake

AMERICAN MESSIAH at Film Expo Texas

I just found out that The Proper Care & Feeding of an American Messiah is a finalist for the "Best Feature" award at FILM EXPO TEXAS. It will screen there (in Houston) this weekend.

Movie theater lists links project continues w/ San Francisco

Yesterday I started posting links to showtimes pages at various newspapers around the country. Those links provide a quick list of movie theaters at various cities - for theater booking/renting research purposes. They also provide links to at least one local newspaper at those cities - for press purposes. So the project continues, here's a link to the SF Gate's movie showtimes page. Go there & click on the San Francisco link on the left hand side of the page for a list of San Fran movie theaters.

http://www.sfgate.com/eguide/movies/playing/theaters.shtml

- Sujewa

Latest AMERICAN MESSIAH Review

Have you ever had that feeling of artistic satisfaction when somone totally 'gets' you? Well, I just read the latest review of my film, The Proper Care & Feeding of an American Messiah, and I am enjoying that feeling right now.

http://worldsgreatestcritic.com/americanmessiah.html

link for a list of New York City movie theaters

at the Village Voice web site:

http://www.villagevoice.com/nycguide/index.php?sid=5

- Sujewa

2 links for lists of Philadelphia movie theaters

from the Philadelphia City Paper:

looks like this one is for general new release flicks:

http://citypaper.net/articles/current/showtimes.shtml

this one is for repertory films:

http://citypaper.net/articles/current/repfilm.shtml


- Sujewa

link for a list of Chicago area movie theaters

the Chicago Reader's movie showtimes page lists probably all of the area movie theaters & most of the other screening venues:

http://onfilm.chicagoreader.com/movies/sts/showtimes.html

- Sujewa

list of DC area movie theaters

i'm on research mode. making a list of all the movie theaters in US, for Date Number One distribution purposes. one quick place to get started is the showtimes page for various alterna newspapers around the country (useful at least for the art/indie type movie that my Date Number One is). here's the link to the Washington City Paper's Showtimes page, for a list of almost all theatrical venues in the DC metro area:

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/showtimes/showtimes.html?navLeft

- Sujewa