Knife Fight Over Mumblecore/Wizard Attack - A Scene from Breakthrough Weekend

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Knife Fight Over Mumblecore, Wizard Attack - A Scene from BREAKTHROUGH WEEKEND from Sujewa Ekanayake on Vimeo.

BREAKTHROUGH WEEKEND Teaser Trailer

BREAKTHROUGH WEEKEND - Teaser Trailer from Sujewa Ekanayake on Vimeo.

Might not be as good as the book, but I am still gonna see it

All Ideas Are Human Ideas...

...and each human is entitled to any human idea.

Or any human should feel free to be able to interact with any idea.  All ideas being human ideas they are, in a very significant way, the inheritance of all humans.

The best practice would be to be open to any positive & useful ideas from any of the many human streams of knowledge - regular life, religions, history, dreams, fiction, visions of the future - and to gather, combine & use these ideas as needed by individuals when facing challenges or existence at any place or time.

A fluid, jazzy, highly capable intellectual warrior thing :)  A technique for victory.

- S

Blog for 60 Films project is up!

Check it out here.

- S

Blog for 1000+ Cool Things About The Sri Lankan Experience project is up!

Check it out here.

- S

Update - Brooklyn Fantastic, The Real Ben Stiller

Here.

- S

DATE NUMBER ONE - entire movie FREE on Vimeo

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Date Number One from Sujewa Ekanayake on Vimeo.

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Nuri Bilge Ceylan at 49th New York Film Festival

A 50+ minutes long interview, for all you fans:

Florida's George Zimmerman and the danger of hunting imaginary monsters

First of all, having only the information available in the media (the 6 or so police recordings made public thus far, over 20 articles that I've read about this horrible incident) it looks to me like that Sanford, Florida's 28 year old George Zimmerman pursued, shot, & killed a 17 year old teenager - Trayvon Martin - without a good reason for doing so.  Going to 7-11 to get some candy and a can of soda, the activity Martin was engaged in that night, is not a good reason for getting killed.  And Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer, has not been arrested yet.  The murder took place over 2 weeks ago.  The killer - Zimmerman - is friendly with the town's ineffective & corrupt (from what I can see) police force.  A whole messed up basket full of rotten ideas - everything from Florida's very-unwise seeming gun laws, to what is described by some media as Zimmerman's unhealthy obsession with crime & young "Black" men, to American racism appears to have contributed to this tragedy.  For more details, read this and other major news coverage of the tragic incident, and the still unfolding frustrating aftermath.  And if Zimmerman is actually as guilty of murder as he appears to be, hopefully his life too will be taken - legally this time, by the state.  That would be fair.

So how does a person like Zimmerman - someone who is interested in keeping his neighborhood safe, as demonstrated by his neighborhood watch activities, become a killer of an unarmed teenager?  Unknown at this point.  We are still waiting for the Sanford police department to wake up and arrest the murderer, so that there may be a trial & so that we can fully discover what may have happened on that tragic night, and everything relevant leading up to that night.  In the meantime, I'll share an old quote that popped into my mind while reading about this incident:

 "He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." 
- Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil, Aphorism 146
German philosopher (1844 - 1900)

In Zimmerman's case I believe it would be more accurate to change the quote to read "he who BELIEVES he is fighting monsters...".

Perhaps Zimmerman saw a monster, a threat, where there was none because he expected to see a threat, because of the ideas that he held in his head about what a criminal, a threat to the neighborhood, looked like may have fit Martin's appearance.  Perhaps this was due to Zimmerman believing in race theory that has been popular in America - that people who are identified as "Black" will behave in a certain way.  And in trying to fight this imaginary monster of his, Zimmerman became, it seems to me, the true monster, a killer of an innocent boy, an unarmed teenager who was out getting a snack in his neighborhood.  The negative ideas about crime and groups of people in America that Zimmerman may have gazed for a very long time into may have become a part of his soul, or at least a part of his deepest thoughts, triggering the evil and unfortunate set of actions that resulted in Martin's death.

An immensely tragic and final event for Martin, and a tragic event for America - one that shows that there is still much work to be done, many improvements and reforms needed, even in this most excellent of all countries.  Hopefully that work will begin quickly with the arrest & trial of the killer George Zimmerman.

- Sujewa

Mostly just fundraising until 3/20

Nothing too exciting to report, getting a few small things done on film projects, but mostly just working the day jobs & fundraising & getting things organized in the new space/for new time usage required for life at this point in time.  Should be far more active on film projects after 3/20, after the 2012 "Epic" (not really epic, but better than usual :) Fundraising Project - Part 1 is over.

- S

From Thu Night's Hal Hartley/"Meanwhile" Event at Museum of the Moving Image

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the entrance

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 and here's the trailer to the movie we watched - Meanwhile, great flick for fans of the early hartley movies, enjoyed it:



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post screening discussion

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moderator & hartley

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that 70's style (in my opinion) curtain is awesome

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hartley & a fan

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 the moderator

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 hartley and more fans

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new work space is set up, got started on building the new site for films

See a photo of the new work space here.  Finally set up, just awaiting a few things, including a mac to continue editing Brooklyn Fantastic.  Eventually this new site will be published into a custom domain, primarily for sharing info on completed films, clips, purchasing, screenings, etc - the official Wild Diner Films website - & this blog will continue to function as the blog for overall projects while in production, behind the scenes notes, other art projects, life, etc.

- S

View from the new living room - night

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Photo Copyright 2012 Sujewa Ekanayake
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1 month to go before casting begins on The Real Ben Stiller (working title)

gotta get this new movie done this spring.  updates as things happen, for now, we are in pre-pre production, won't have anything too interesting to report 'till late march/early april.

temp site for the project.

- S

Update

Over the next 2 - 3 weeks will be busy with moving into a new apartment (not too far from the current one, still in Brooklyn).  Regular postings will pick up again here after the move - Date Number One segments on YouTube, Brooklyn Fantastic updates, & much more.  See you in mid-February.

- S

Date Number One (in several parts) on YouTube - A January - March 2012 Project

From January - March I plan on posting up my 2006 premiered movie Date Number One on YouTube in its entirety, one segment at a time. Following is segment 1, 1st 3 mins (next segment should be longer, took a while to upload this one but I think I have ways of making the process faster & thus putting up larger segments).  Other segments will be posted below segment 1 as soon as they are ready to be added.
- 1/13/12

New segments coming very soon/this weekend most likely.
- 2/15/12

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:: posted 1/13/12
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:: posted 1/15/12
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For more on Date Number One visit: http://datenumberone08.blogspot.com/.
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- S
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13 Days Into the New Year

Out of the 13 days I've worked 11 at the day job, wrote/worked on scripts pretty much every day, started posting up Date Number One on YouTube, watched a lot of TV shows & movies on Netflix, was busy on 2 side projects/books (1000+ Cool Things Sri Lanka, and a how to guide of sorts for life) - mostly gathering material - so, a very productive start for 2012.  On the filmmaking front - major item - trying to meet a 2/1 submission deadline for a film festival w/ Brooklyn Fantastic, editing.  We shall see the fruits of these labors in about another two+ weeks, by the end of January.  In the meantime, check out a couple of pics of the neighborhood, taken this year.

 View from Sunset Park, Brooklyn, January 2012

 Sujewa at Sunset Park

Food cart near Lutheran Hospital near 58th St & 2nd Ave or so - Sunset Park, Brooklyn
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Photos Copyright 2012 Sujewa Ekanayake

- S

1000+ Cool Things About The Sri Lankan Experience - A 2012 Project

Project has started  - go here for the Facebook page.  The project will create a web presence, a web community, and a physical book in 2012.

- S

How cool is this? Wild Diner Films NYC Chuck Taylors

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A birthday gift from my sister.  Thanks Gayani!

- S

The Four Stars of Brooklyn Fantastic

Well, it's really 4 humans + the city (in this case Brooklyn & Manhattan).  Anyway, for now, a photo each of all.  The film is being edited, hope to have it finished by the end of this month.

Reid Gershbein is the star of Story 1.  A real life story (documents actual events) about a filmmaker from California who comes to NYC to show a movie.
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Amir Motlagh & Susan Buice are the stars of Story 2.  A fictional story about a filmmaker (Motlagh) facing a few interesting dilemmas in Brooklyn & a writer (Buice) who is attempting to move to Brooklyn.
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Amanda Haynes is the star of Story 3. Another real life story (documents actual events) about a Brooklyn based writer who has to deal with several unfortunate situations.
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Film takes place in Brooklyn, w/ a few scenes in Manhattan.  In this photo, taken from Sunset Park in Brooklyn, Manhattan is visible in the background - above the rooftops.

All photos Copyright 2011 Sujewa Ekanayake

iPhone 4S video side by side comparison to Canon 5D MKII video

iPhone 4S / Canon 5d MKII Side by Side Comparison from Robino Films on Vimeo.

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More here.

- S

Social Capitalism - interesting new idea

Check it out.

From the Wikipedia article: 

"Social capitalism (Socio-capitalism), as a theory or political or philosophical stance, challenges the idea that the goals of socialism and the existing system of capitalism are inherently antagonistic.^[1] The essence of social capitalism is that markets work best and output is maximized through sound social management of the macroeconomy. Social capitalism posits that a strong social support network for the poor enhances capital output. By decreasing poverty, capital market participation is enlarged. Social capitalism also posits that government regulation, and even sponsorship of markets, can lead to superior economic outcomes, as evidenced in government sponsorship of the internet or basic securities regulation.^[2]"

Read the rest here.

- S

Interesting IndieGoGo project - indie band in Myanmar/Burma - Side Effect - wants to put out a record & tour

Check out their page on IndieGoGo.

More:



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Side Effect - Myanmar - visit www.indiegogo.com/SideEffectMyanmar to help us continue to make music! from Side Effect Myanmar on Vimeo.

- S

Robert Rodriguez on getting financing outside the studios & future plans

Read all about it at The Playlist.

- S