Schirmer Encyclopedia of Film

Independent Film
a Dream, 1999), Christopher Nolan (the thriller
Memento, 2000, about a man with no short-term memory
caught in the middle of a murder mystery), and Todd
Solondz (the sexually explicit college-set drama
Storytelling, 2001). While opportunities for women directors
remained scant in mainstream Hollywood, a number
of young female auteurs got the opportunity to direct low
budget indie features. Some delved into contemporary
questions regarding gender identity (Kimberly Peirce’s
Boys Don’t Cry, 1999), while others explored growing
up female (Catherine Hardwicke’s Thirteen and Sofia
Coppola’s The Virgin Suicides, 1999).
A number of indie titles were marketed to large
niche audiences, most significantly the youth audience.
The most popular indie film of all time was the teenhorror
picture The Blair Witch Project (1999), a film that
to great effect aped the look and style of a typical student
film. Several more polished alternative teen horror films
followed, many of them played with equal amounts of
thrills and satire: Wes Craven’s popular Scream series–
Scream (1996), Scream 2 (1997), and Scream 3 (2000)
and the Scary Movie franchise–Scary Movie (2000), Scary
Movie 2 (2001), and Scary Movie 3 (2003)–were all
distributed by Miramax’s teen-label Dimension Films.
While bawdy teen comedies like American Pie (1999)
and its sequels (American Pie 2, 2001, and American
Wedding, 2003) continued to be a staple among the
major studio release slates, a series of darker, more troubling
teenpics appeared on the indie circuit, films like
Richard Kelly’s exploration of adolescent madness
Donnie Darko (2001), the disconcerting coming of age
film Igby Goes Down (2002), the nerd satire Napoleon
Dynamite (2004), the anti-establishment road trip picture
Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle (2004), and the
generation-next coming of age movie Garden State (2004).
Making a film on the indie circuit also offered
opportunities to mainstream performers, especially movie
stars, to acquire something akin to ‘‘indie cred.’’ At the
very least, it allowed glamorous movie stars a chance to
showcase their talent playing ‘‘against type.’’ For example,
the beautiful African American actress Halle Berry
won an Academy Award Ò for her performance in Marc
Foster’s Monster’s Ball (2001). With an unflattering haircut,
little makeup, and dingy clothes, Berry played a
waitress who has an affair with a racist jailer after her
husband is executed. Two years later, the South African
model turned star actress Charlize Theron followed
Berry’s lead winning an Oscar Ò for her portrayal of the
serial killer Aileen Wuornos in Patty Jenkins’s Monster.
Diversifying into the small indie market has had its
advantages for the major film companies. Though many
of their boutique titles have not made them much
money, they have added much-needed prestige to industry
release slates otherwise dominated by empty action
pictures. When boutique releases win prizes at festivals
like Sundance, Cannes, Venice, Berlin, and Toronto or
awards at the Golden Globes or Oscars Ò, they boost the
studio’s reputation. Control over the indie-sector also
gives the major studios something very close to complete
control over the entire American cinema landscape, a
degree of control that in the 21st century renders the
term ‘‘independent’’ not only conditional but perhaps
even obsolete.
SEE ALSO Art Cinema; Exhibition; Exploitation Films;
Producer; Studio System; Yiddish Cinema
FURTHER READING
Biskind, Peter. Down and Dirty Pictures: Miramax, Sundance and
the Rise of Independent Film. New York: Simon & Schuster,
2004.
Goodell, Gregory. Independent Feature Film Production: A
Complete Guide from Concept to Distribution. New York:
St. Martin’s, 1982.
Kleinhans, Chuck. ‘‘Independent Features: Hopes and Dreams.’’
In The New American Cinema. Edited by Jon Lewis. Durham,
NC: Duke University Press, 1998.
Levy, Emanuel. Cinema of Outsiders: The Rise of Independent
Film. New York: New York University Press, 2001.
McCarthy, Todd, and Charles Flynn, eds. Kings of the Bs:
Working Within the Hollywood System. New York: Dutton,
1975.
Pierson, John. Spike, Mike, Slackers and Dykes: A Guided Tour
Across a Decade of Independent Cinema. New York: Hyperion,
1995.
Rosen, David. Off-Hollywood: The Making and Marketing of
Independent Film. New York: Independent Feature Project
and Burbank, CA: Sundance Institute, 1987
Schaefer, Eric. Bold! Daring! Shocking! True!: A History of
Exploitation Films, 1919–1959. Durham, NC: Duke
University Press, 1999.
Jon Lewis
12 SCHIRMER ENCYCLOPEDIA OF FILM