For two and a half years Sujewa Ekanayake has provided the indie film world with one of its funniest and most arresting blogs, DIY Filmmaker Sujewa, where the thirty-four year old Washington D.C. based Sri Lankan offers an insightful glance into the world of the independent filmmaker outside of the New York-LA indie axis. His newest film, Indie Film Blogger Road Trip, brings him into the homes and working spaces of 14 film bloggers and is perhaps the first extended meditation on the impact, limitations and peculiarities of the film blogosphere to date. We caught up with him this week to discuss the charms of Battlestar Galactica, where Kevin Smith went wrong and finding his long lost copy of Tom Wait’s “Rain Dogs”.

What films or television shows have you seen recently?

Battlestar Galactica, Sarah Silverman show, The Office, Cookies & Cream, 30 Rock, Zack & Miri Make A Porno - off the top of my head that’s some stuff I’ve seen recently, been watching.

Which ones stuck with you and why?

All the ones have been entertaining in one way or another.  Battlestar Galactica deserves special mention because they took an old TV show & totally brought it up do date - & used it to deal with some current issues we are thinking about - religiously motivated war, who or what exactly is a person/human rights issues, cycles of violence, genocide, disappearing of gender & ethnic barriers in some professions & some sectors of society in general.  Also, Zack & Miri was OK - generally I liked it, but the movie did not flow smoothly for me - several other Kevin Smith movies I liked because they seemed plausible, naturalistic in their pacing (I think that’s what I mean) - Clerks, Chasing Amy, even Clerks II - even with that movie’s fantastic elements.  Zack & Miri did not feel real or Kevin Smith-y somehow - maybe it’s because it featured two well known actors - I mean super famous actors, but hopefully Smith will have a lot of success with it.

Does your interest in them have ramifications for your own work as a filmmaker and blogger?

Yes.  Both the new Galactica & I are interested in multi-generational ethnic wars that have gone on in human history, The Office is a very good comedy that comes from an ordinary situation (something like that I can do as a low budget DIY filmmaker), Cookies & Cream is a new film from a new DIY filmmaker - a subject that I blog about (DIY filmmaking & self distribution), 40 Rock is funny - about the entertainment industry - thus vaguely relevant to my work - also I like the multi-ethnic cast & concerns that are often in the show (even though they take a comic perspective on most things).  Re: Silverman, I blogged about the Asian American protest about some comments of hers a long time ago, so I checked out her show - it is pretty funny - specially story lines involving the Brian dude & his boyfriend (those two characters should get their own shows, they are easier to sympathize with than the Silverman character, also Sarah’s sister is conservative-nice hot).  Kevin Smith’s career path is of interest to me - since he started off making low budget movies & now has access to budgets in the low millions - so I like to keep up with what he is up to, maybe there is stuff to learn from the Smith story - career wise.

How often do you read fiction? Do you wish you read more?

I don’t read a lot of fiction.  I am engaged with fiction narratives through movies.  And I make up my own stories - so I deal with fiction there.  I don’t wish I read more fiction.  I do read a lot of non-fiction.  I am working on making an immortality device, and that requires dealing with quantum mechanics, biology, medicine, time travel theories - so I have to read a lot of how-to manuals & do research.  I will, however, read anything written by Michael Ondaatje - fiction or non-fiction.

What would be your ideal literary adaptation and why?

Anything that deals well with the American Revolution era.  Because it completely changed the world (start of the end of empires led by monarchs - which leads to the rise of individualism, individual rights & power, freedom from religion, expansion of commerce & capitalism, etc.  and world wide dispersion of lots of interesting ideas developed through the Enlightenment era) and continues to transform the world to this day (and I can show that in a movie), and, on paper, the idea that a little colony was going to defeat a world wide empire in a war & drastically re-shape the world would have looked silly & impossible on paper before the revolution - so it is an epic & magical event in human history, stuff for grand movies perhaps.

How, if at all, has reading informed your filmmaking?

Back in the day, before I learned how to create characters well, reading the thoughts of characters or real people helped me figure out the inner/mental/emotional workings of characters I wanted to create.  Plus, whenever I make a movie, I do a lot of research - for the most recent flick - the doc Indie Film Blogger Road Trip - I read a lot of blogs, more than I usually read for entertainment & info.

What are you listening to recently?

I was picking up a large pizza in Bed Stuy an hour ago & they were playing that Beyonce song about single ladies - and I paid attention to the song because it triggered in my mind images from Beyonce & dancers performing on Saturday Night Live recently - lots of hot legs in that performance.  A few days ago I listened to Fugazi’s In On The Kill Taker while I was unpacking some boxes, and Tom Wait’s Rain Dogs because I found it again after it being lost for a long time.

If you could collaborate with one musician on a film, who would it be and why?

I’ll collaborate with anyone who makes good music - famous or unknown.  Recently I used music created by Kevin MacLeod for my blogger doc.  I think I want to use some New Orleans jazz sounding stuff in a future movie, also Tom Waits would be a good person to work with I think, also perhaps G Love.