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

HEAD TRAUMA world premiere

HEAD TRAUMA will be having its world premiere at the LA FILM FESTIVAL later this month. The film will be screening in the Dark Wave section. I can't wait. The first screening will be at the Majestic Crest Theater on Sat. June 24th at 11:59pm. For more info visit http://lafilmfest.com

In other news I'm just about finished the materials for the HT dvd. It's chalk full of bonus features and the packaging design looks amazing. I'll have more details soon regarding the street date. But as I mentioned before, it will be this fall and the movie will get a wide release.

More to come...

"Date Number One" review # 2! (very positive)

This review is out of LA, from the Hollywood Is Talking blog.

Here's a segment from it:

" But if a connection is made, the plates speed up and the spectator is caught up in the jugglers, the ideas, the desire, and the wonder of it all.

Such is the case with Indie Filmmaker Sujewa Ekanayake’s feature “Date Number One”, five stories of diverse characters juggling in and around a cozy bookshop in Kensington, Maryland. It’s probably fair to say that Ekanayake has been inspired by the early work of Richard Linklater and Jim Jarmusch, two filmmakers who patiently take the time to let their characters talk, and perhaps more importantly listen, so that viewers can get to know these folks. Like these two filmmakers, Ekanayake lets his characters make mistakes, fall silent, make false starts, pulling the viewer into their story through identification and recognition."

Check out the whole thing here!

- Sujewa

Blog admin note: weird going ons w/ the template

The links section on right hand side of the blog do not show up properly on one of my computers (thanks Blake C. for the heads up) but the section does show up properly on my other computer (the later one is running a more recent version of windows). But my other blog shows up as it should on both computers. Will be experimenting a bit w/ the blog template the next couple of days to see if I can get stuff to show up properly. Also, hopefully before this week is out I will be able to get links for all the IF06 flicks added to the links section of the blog. If the links section continues to act weird I'll be adding the links to all the IF06 flicks below my signature whenever I post. Maybe I can add the links to the intro at the top of the page also.

Btw, I saw a mention of The War Tapes in the most recent issue of Premiere Magazine. Congrats Deborah!

- Sujewa

The Maryland New Wave

Check it out IF06ers:

http://diyfilmmaker.blogspot.com/2006/05/maryland-new-wave.html

here's a little bit of the post:

"Todd Rohal's '06 feature The Guatamalan Handshake + Micheal Tully's '06 feature Cocaine Angel + Sujewa Ekanayake's '06 feature Date Number One = The Maryland New Wave..."

- Sujewa

Silverdocs 2K6

For some reason, my personal blog isn't working right now, but I've been jonesing to blog all day (what a boring addiction), so I'll finally blog something here several months after Sujewa invited me (to be fair, I did write one quick entry back in the day). But while I'm thinking about it, I though I'd do a quick mention that Silverdocs tickets are available and to note that some screenings have already sold out for non-passholders.

Silverdocs, for people who are unfamiliar is a documentary film festival held annually in Silver Spring, MD, just outside of Washington, DC. This year's fest looks promising. So far, I'm planning to see Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady's Jesus Camp, at the major risk of bringing back any number of traumatic childhood memories; Susan Dynner's Punk's Not Dead; Gary Tarn's Black Sun, which focuses on visual artist Hugues de Montalembert's experience going blind as an adult; Alexandra Lipsitz's Air Guitar Nation (yeah, there's a musical theme), which comes highly recommended by Sara Jo Marks; Steve Anderson's Fuck, which focuses on the history and significance of the film's title; Stanley Nelson's Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple; and Michael Winterbottom's The Road to Guantanamo, which looks like an incredibly powerful and potentially controversial film, in part because of its hybrid of documentary and re-enacted scenes.

At any rate, the film schedule looks excellent, and if you're in the DC area, it's certainly worth a quick Metro ride up to Silver Spring. Hopefully things will be up and running in my corner of blogworld soon.

James M.Johnston & David Lowery in DC

Just got home from hanging out w/ David Lowery & James Johnston at the Black Cat in DC. Earlier today we showed David & James' flick Deadroom to a small but appreciative audience at Kensington Row Bookshop. Hanging out w/ the two filmmakers from Texas has been a lot of fun.
I got to learn all about where to play in Austin & Dallas (!Metronome! (sp?)) & about the general lay of the land over there, for my Texas gigs w/ Date Number One.

David & James visited the monuments earlier today, I am sure David will blog about that & other aspects of the DC trip very soon.

Gotta visit James' wife Amy's vegan joint Spiral Diner when I visit Texas.

- Sujewa

David Lowery is in DC!

David Lowery is very, very difficult to deal with. Not only did he absolutely insist that I pick him up in a 6 door limousine from BWI air port here in MD/DC area, I had to bring fresh flowers & a stripper. Immediately after meeting him, he requested that I address him as "Sir David Lowery, the III, Texas filmmaker extraordinaire" and not to ask him any questions about anything & that he will speak with me when he deems it necessary. Right now he is speaking on the phone in a very loud tone w/a certain action movie star who belongs to a controversial "religion". Lowery requested that 4 Canadian geese be made available for his breakfast in the morning. This is going to be an interesting week. I am sharpening my knives.

- Sujewa
ps: just kidding, David got here a couple of hours ago, all is well, we look forward to screening "Deadroom" at Kensington Row Bookshop tomorrow night.

Interview With A Seattle Audience Member for Date Number One

(Originally published on Sat 5/20)

Tom Kipp, Seattle resident (& former film reviewer for the Seattle alterna weekly The Stranger, if I heard correctly), came to the 7 PM show today. Here's an interview:

Sujewa: So Tom, how did you hear about my movie playing at Northwest Film Forum (NWFF) tonight?

Tom: Well, I was checking the NWFF website yesterday for info about LOVE STREAMS, and quite randomly found the blurb about DATE NUMBER ONE. I read parts of your blog, and couldn't resist a film about D.C.! [I lived in Burke, VA for five years--'87 to '92--and used to hang out in D.C. all the time.]

Sujewa: Excellent. Glad you came. So how did you like the movie (feel free to elaborate :)?

Tom: I thought the framing device you deployed [having all the characters in some way appended to the Adams-Morgan bookstore] was quite effective, and entirely plausible. It reminded me a little of the odd "social rivulets", as it were, that emanated out from The Record & Tape Exchange, which I used to manage out in Fairfax, VA, in the way that lifelong friendships and doomed "hookups" would both occur in a perfectly organic way, all because folks wanted to buy cheap music, or even kill time at the suburban strip mall where the store was located!

Sujewa: That's a bookstore in Kensington, MD. But I can see how you thought it was in Adams-Morgan. There are a lot of shots of Adams-Morgan in story # 2. Which story out of the 5 was your favorite, and why?

Tom: I think the sweetest, most relaxed, and most satisfying is #5, and the "French" lesson is really sexy, without being all that improbable! Coming in, I was most curious about #2, the "Threesome" episode, because I'd seen the photos of Jennifer & Dele on your blog, and who wouldn't want to watch actresses that gorgeous! I wasn't quite as fond of the episode as a whole, partly due to the "blah-blah" parts, though they're really funny at first. The other story I really enjoyed was #3, because the two actors were so adept at pushing each other's buttons, and they seemed so relaxed in front of the camera.

Sujewa: Excellent. Yup, Story 2 does feature two incredibly attractive performers. That one is an odd story, more dramatic (at least that was the goal) than the rest. I think it adds some interesting ideas & maybe a little bit of weight to the otherwise light film. What did you think (or did you think about this at all?) about there being many minority actors in the movie? Or what did you think about the multi-ethnic approach to casting?

Tom: I didn't register that as a Major Statement at all, but I thought it very true to the nature of the Greater-D.C. boho community as I experienced it, particularly in the sense that it's no big deal around that area to know folks from all over the world, and very common for people of different ethnicities to hang out, date, and chat about the most unusual aspects of their "pre-D.C." or "extra-D.C." lives. I found that people were always curious about my own upbringing in Montana--my sister and I grew up on three Indian Reservations there, due to our dad being a forester with the Bureau of Indian Affairs--and wondered how someone from such a rural part of the U.S. had acquired a huge record collection or knew so much about punk rock, for example. And I was always really pleased to meet people who'd done unusual things or lived overseas, which was a near-daily occurrence living around D.C.

Sujewa: Yeah, it's a strange world. Both you & Mark Andersen (DC activist - founder of We Are Family social service org & author of DC punk history book Dance Of Days) are from Montana & both of you have large record collections. And both of you lived in DC probably at the same time for a while. How do you think the movie will play in Montana?

Tom: It would've done very well, I think, in the Old Missoula of The Crystal Theater, which was the great Rocky Mountain Art House from the early-'70s until just a few years ago. And there may well be a newer venue that has filled the post-Crystal void, though I haven't been in town since '99, so I don't know that for certain. I'd say DATE NUMBER ONE is precisely the charmingly unpredictable sort of relationship-oriented movie that Missoula's filmgoing community would've flocked to when I lived there ['82 to '87], much as they did to STRANGER THAN PARADISE, DOWN BY LAW or SHE'S GOTTA HAVE IT, back in the day!

Sujewa: Thanks for those awesome comparisons Tom! Let's hope the modern day versions of that crowd discovers Date Number One. Thank you for doing this interview right here in the lobby of the Northwest Film Forum (where right now a local theater group is shooting an improve piece). Feel free to talk here about anything you want, related to the film, before we say goodbye for now.

Tom: Well, Sujewa, I'm just really pleased that I lucked into seeing your film and meeting up with you, and I'd like to congratulate you on being able to put FIVE really entertaining, fully-realized romantic interludes on the screen. Your film definitely catches the part of falling for another person that I particularly like, namely the fact that it can go ANYWHERE, and that you could never have imagined going in how it would turn out, or who the person who caught your eye would ACTUALLY turn out to be! Which is a shamefully rare achievement, considering how many films work some variation on this terrain. Good luck!

Sujewa: Thanks Tom! Feel free to ask some questions from me (if you have any).

Tom: The first thing I'd like to know, frankly, is how you wrote your script, whether one of the five stories was originally going to be the basis for an entire feature, or whether you conceived the film as an "anthology" from the git-go? And also, when in the process you came up with the bookstore-as-framing concept?

Sujewa: I planned it from the beginning as an anthology film. Looks like the last show is over & NWFF is closing. Thanks for the interview & talk to you soon Tom.

- Sujewa

HEAD TRAUMA coming to a city near you

Over the last week or so I started booking a theatrical run for my newest feature HEAD TRAUMA. My goal is to screen the movie for at least a week on 10 to 15 screens. So far I've booked 4 screens, three in the Philadelphia area and one in Scranton, Pa - where the movie was shot. I'm waiting to hear back from screens in VT, AZ, NM, MO, CA, NY, MA and WA.

If anyone happens to know of any indie friendly venues please let me know. I've been talking to a number of independent theater owners with the goal of stitching together a number of screens across the country.

I'm structuring a 50/50 split and so far I'm planning on attending each of the runs for a couple days to help with press and promotion. In most of the cities I'll be doing some talks and workshops. I'm also putting together a series of after parties.

The run will start in August and lead up to the street date of the HEAD TRAUMA DVD on Sept. 26th nationwide.

The goal is get some of the theatrical run covered by sponsorship. I'm close to pulling together some sponsorship money to assist with travel and the production of promotional materials etc.

There are a number of other exciting things in the works as well. The alternate sound track to the movie is close to completion and will be released nationwide on Sept. 26th by a great indie label. I'll have more details about the alt soundtrack and its role within the promotion and distro of HT very soon.

Lastly, HT will be having its world premiere and European premiere at two amazing festivals in June. I'm very excited about the screenings but won't be able to make full announcements until later this month. But I'm planning on using the fests as a springboard to my platform release for the movie.

More to come...

Jacksonville and beyond: a cheerful producer

Just heard from Kat -
Our screening at the Jacksonville film festival was sold out, people were turned away and they set up a second screening on Sunday afternoon.
It's so nice to hear this when my head is down in paperwork that somewhere people are responding to the film and all these little bits of paper on my desk have a meaning beyond which stack they go in.
In other news, we're working with a friend, someone we met on our marathon team (yet another good reason to take up running) to create a marketing plan for jumping. This friend has years of hollywood connections and experience and he meets our main criteria: he's super nice.
More details later, all I can say now is that it's innovative, breaks some rules and is going to be a lot of fun.

Love Streams, Date Number One, Calvin "K Records" Johnson @ Northwest Film Forum tonight

Of course I am excited to be at the Northwest Film Forum tonight 'cause my new feature Date Number One is opening there tonight for a whole weekend worth of shows. On top of that, my excitement has been taken up to 11 'cause John Cassavetes' film Love Streams will be opening tonight. And Calvin Johnson from K Records (and if my memory serves, from Beat Happening & other bands) will be playing music prior to the Love Streams 7 PM show tonight.

!!!AWESOME!!!!!!!

See all three attractions listed at the Northwest Film Forum front page.See ya at the theater if you are in Seattle!

- Sujewa

"Matt's Birthday Gift" screening at NYU Cantor Film Center

This weekend, I participated in the NYC Midnight Run. The theme was "revenge" and 50 teams of filmmakers had 24 hours to write, shoot, edit, and score a short film. I have to say, it was an exhilirating experience. I hardly ate and didn't even have time to "drop a deuce" (ok, the crass comedy has ended). I wrote the script from 12am--5am (woke my girlfriend up when I couldn't find some blank paper to print the script) the actors were on set by 10am, shot until 3, and edited until 11pm. I almost coughed up a lung running to the bar to hand in the finished film. I was on a creative high until yesterday, when they announced the 12 films moving on to the "BEST OF" screening, and eligible for $10,000 in prizes. Our film didn't make the cut

Needless to say, it was a great learning experience and if you're in the NYC area, come check it out. Our film is the first one slated to screen on Sat. May 12th and its only $5.

More info here: http://www.nycmidnight.com/2006/MidnightRun/NYC/Screenings/Screenings.htm

"Matt's Birthday Gift" is a cerebral short about a futuristic cell phone that ruins the lives of two hipster Brooklyn couples, kind of like a poor man's Eyes Wide Shut with a mix of Charlie Kaufman-esque comic surrealism. (Thats a mouthful!)

IN OTHER NEWS...Auteurvision has been steadily coming along, and with any luck, should have it finished and out on the festival circuit early 2007.

And come be my friend at MYSPACE http://www.myspace.com/wyattbenbernstein

Best,
WB

Crossing the line from filmmaker w/ a work in progress to filmmaker w/ a good film in distribution

I crossed the line a couple of days ago, on Sat 5/13 in DC when I premiered Date Number One to about 100 people at Goethe-Institut. It's kind of like graduating, from high school, college, grad school, all at the same time. Now a record is being formed: in the minds of the audience members who've seen the film, in the minds of film reviewers, in the minds of media outlets that I advertise with, and in the minds of blog readers. In a very small way (and hopefully a much bigger way down the road) the film & I have become a part of US indie film history (whatever I do next or not do will be seen with Date Number One in mind).

It's all very interesting & satisfying when I have a moment to think about it. Getting a very positive audience response (they laughed a lot, very good reaction to a comedy) on Sat night made me feel very good, the two years of work was worth it. Also, my key investor who waited at least 6 years for me to make a decent film & have spent low thousands of dollars on my attempts to make a film that plays well with an audience is very happy, and that makes me happy. The excellent review from Chuck Tryon also helped in making me realize that I have entered a new territory in my filmmaking career (that was the best review I've ever gotten & the fact that it is from someone who spends most of his day thinking about film & media makes it even more special, also, the reception gotten from the audience on 5/13 was the best ever for any of my movies- this being the 4th movie in 14 years, the 2nd feature). And now when people ask me about what I do I will have a shiny silver disc to point to (which they will be able to get for $12), & maybe a newspaper ad or a review on a blog too, and if they ask on the right day I can point to a movie theater & say I'll see you there tonight when my movie plays there.

Also, the whole Date Number One project is one of many on-going tests of a process: can ultra-low budget DV filmmaking & ultra-low budget self-distribution be used to create a professional career? The verdict is YES so far.

The line that separates a filmmaker w/a work in progress and a filmmaker w/ a finished film that receives a good response has been crossed, life is simpler now, it's a whole new world.

- Sujewa