AMERICAN INDEPENDENT FILM

By: Grey Daisies

If it’s personal to a director, then it’s an independent. – Ted Demme

American independent cinema has always been a notoriously difficult concept to define. This is primarily because the label ‘independent’ has been widely used since the early years of American cinema by filmmakers, film critics, industry practitioners, trade publications, academics and cinema fans, to the extent that any attempt towards a definition is almost certainly destined to raise objections. For the majority of people with a basic knowledge of American cinema, independent filmmaking consists of low-budget projects made by (mostly) young filmmakers with a strong personal vision away from the influence and pressures of the few major conglomerates that control tightly the American film industry. Far from the clutches of AOL Time Warner, Sony Columbia and Viacom Paramount, which are mainly in the business of producing expensive star vehicles and special-effects-driven films that bring larger profits from DVD sales and merchandising than from theatre admissions, independent filmmakers create films that stand against the crass commercialism of mainstream Hollywood while often pushing the envelope in terms of subject matter and its mode of representation. As film critic Emanuel Levy put it, ‘ideally, an indie is a fresh, low-budget movie with a gritty style and offbeat subject matter that express the filmmaker’s personal vision.’ (Yannis Tzioumakis, American Independent Cinema: An Introduction)

Independent is a misnomer. By definition, it’s an oxymoron. If you’re
   truly independent, then no one can really categorize you and your film
   can’t be pigeonholed. If you’re against the system, you’re part of the
   system by definition. I don’t think independent means against the
   system, but you’re always dependent on the money. – Alan Rudolph

In an era where indie budgets have soared into the millions and Hollywood studios have taken over independent production companies such as New Line, Miramax, and October, defining independent films has become more complicated than ever. Perhaps it’s simplest to state what they are not. Says Levy: ‘Indie films, as a whole, are not artistically groundbreaking or politically provocative. Despite offbeat characterizations, most indies lack unusual stories, experimental pacing, fractured narratives, or kinetic editing, to mention a few radical devices.’ Despite this observation, Levy is nevertheless optimistic about independent cinema and its possibilities for creating challenging, unconventional work. Thus his definition of “independent” encompasses both the method by which films are financed and produced, as well as the more elusive criteria of an inventive spirit or personal vision. (Cleo Cacoulidis, book review of Cinema of Outsiders: The Rise of American Independent Film by Emanuel Levy)

- Further readings (Books, Articles):

Cinema of Outsiders: The Rise of American Independent Film (Emanuel Levy)
American Independent Cinema: An Introduction (Yannis Tzioumakis)
Contemporary American Independent Film: From the Margins to the Mainstream (Chris Holmlund)
The Last Great American Picture Show: New Hollywood Cinema in the 1970s (Thomas Elsaesser, Noel King, Alexander Horwath)
Stranger Than Paradise: Maverick Film-Makers in Recent American Cinema (Geoff Andrew)
American Independent Cinema (Geoff King)
A Critical Cinema: Interviews with Independent Filmmakers 1 – 5 (Scott MacDonald)
American Independent Cinema: A Sight and Sound Reader (Jim Hillier)
The Rough Guide to American Independent Film (Jessica Winter)
Spike, Mike, Slackers, & Dykes: A Guided Tour Across a Decade of American Independent Cinema (John Pierson)
Declarations of Independence: American Cinema and the Partiality of Independent Production (John Berra)
Directory of World Cinema: American Independent (John Berra)
Outsider Features: American Independent Films of the 1980s (Richard K. Ferncase)
100 American Independent Films – BFI Screen Guides (Jason Wood)
American Independent Narrative Cinema of the ’60s (Gary Morris, Bright Lights Film Journal, 2000)
Independent America, 1978-1988 (Jonathan Rosenbaum, Moving Image Source, 2009)
The Real Independent Movement: A survey of the first thirty years of American Indie filmmaking (Ray Carney, 2005)
Independent America: New Film 1978-1988 (Retrospective catalogue [pdf], Museum of the Moving Image, 1988)

Whenever I meet a young director who is looking for guidance and
   advice, I tell him to look at the example of John Cassavetes, a source
   of the greatest strength. John made it possible for me to think that I
   could actually make a movie. – Martin Scorsese

- Some directors whose films are not currently in the MUBI database:

Anne Robertson
Ann Flournoy
Betzy Bromberg
Billie Woodberry
Camille Billops
Caroline Avery
Charles Wright
Chick Strand
Damon Packard
Dan Eisenberg
Danny Lyon
Denis Sanders
Edwin Cariati
Ellen Gaine
Emily Breer
Ericka Beckman
Fran Rizzo
Gail Camhi
Gary Adkins
Ivan Dixon
Joe Gibbons
Juleen Compton
Lee Savage
Manuel De Landa
Maria Marewski
Mark Daniels
Mary Filippo
Michael Burlingame
Nina Fonoroff
Ossie Davis
Phil Weisman
Peter Rose
Rob Danielson
Robert Kaylor
Robert M. Young
Robert Nelson
Sidney Peterson
Stacy Cochran
Warren Sonbert