American Independent Cinema

This course looks at some of the varieties of independent cinema that have emerged from America since the early 1980s. Films by directors such as John Waters, Jim Jarmusch, David Lynch, Spike Lee, Todd Haynes, Lisa Cholodenko, and Richard Linklater, will be examined both within the context of their cinematic precursors and influences, and the wider social and institutional circumstances that helped to create audiences for them. At a time when all of the major Hollywood studios have independent subsidiaries, which produce big-budget 'indies' that regularly grab the limelight at the Academy Awards, trying to decide what makes a film 'independent' raises a number of questions. Within the context of commercial feature film production, has the term 'independent' become just another form of branding or product differentiation (mapping out its own pantheon of producers, auteurs and stars)? Or are the circumstances of independent production, distribution, and exhibition more varied and complex than this? While American independent cinema has often been defined according to industrial and institutional criteria, it has just as often been identified with formal experimentation and/ or a willingness to tackle subject matter considered too controversial, confrontational, or just plain obscurantist for Hollywood. From New Minimalism to New Queer Cinema, from Trash to Gen-X, this course plumbs the last quarter-century of American independent cinema to pose questions about its continuing social and aesthetic vitality.

This course looks at some of the varieties of independent cinema that have emerged from America since the early 1980s, and plumbs the last quarter-century of American independent cinema to pose questions about its continuing social and aesthetic vitality. Students will examine films by directors such as John Waters, Jim Jarmusch, David Lynch, Spike Lee, Todd Haynes, Lisa Cholodenko, and Richard Linklater both 1) within the context of their cinematic precursors and influences, and 2) in the wider social and institutional circumstances that helped to create audiences for them. Students will pursue a set of questions regarding what constitutes and counts as independence and independent cinema, employing methods such as a) industrial and economic analyses, b) close reading, c) contextual historical research of marketing, audiences and socio-political developments, and d) authorial and identitarian approaches to the films in question. Students will also be able to identify different movements and aesthetic styles and evaluate indie cinemas’ diverse modes of experimentation and confrontation, from the New Minimalism to New Queer Cinema, from Trash to Gen-X films.

By the end of this course, students will be able to demonstrate that they have:

• a detailed, historical knowledge of the circumstances of independent film production, distribution, and reception.
• the ability to identify, analyse and research the industrial strategies used to differentiate independent films from other types of films in the marketplace.
• demonstrated knowledge of the formal and stylistic influence that other cinemas – including the American underground, European art cinema, exploitation cinema, and Hollywood – have had on independent American filmmaking.
• gained critical skills for analysing and assessing the social significance of independent cinema for minoritarian audiences and politics.
• the ability to grapple with and evaluate the critical issues raised by American independent cinema’s engagement with contemporary political events, social anxieties, consumer habits, and (sub)cultural tastes.