Cinema & Culture: Independent Film in the United States, 1980-2001Contemporary independent American and non-American films distributed in the United States have emerged as a distinct system of representation formulated in the expanse between principles of Hollywood popular film and alternative cinematic practices. Cinema & Culture considers independent film as an industry, a set of institutions, a discursive formation, and a specific series of texts. Investigating the consumption side of the spectrum (distribution, reception, textual analysis), attention is focused on narrative films released theatrically in the United States by nonstudio distributors between 1980 and 2001. The category «independent film» is analyzed as the function of multiple, simultaneous, layered, and interacting discourses: representational, institutional, interpretive, and cultural/historical. Under exploration is the extent to which independent film as a distinct cultural formation is able to represent the stories, perspectives, and experiences of a pluralistic, multicultural society. |
Contents
Codependence The Independent Industry | 3 |
Film as Artifact | 41 |
Fixing Difference | 81 |
Copyright | |
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actors Ada's aesthetic African American Alan Rudolph alternative argues art cinema art film Artists audience auteurism avant-garde Baines Blair Witch box-office chapter character Cinecom concept critical Crouching Tiger cultural cultural/historical discourses Daughters depicted distribution dominant Dust experimental film's Filmmaker Fox Searchlight genre George Girl Goldwyn Hidden Dragon Hollywood identity politics ideological independent cinema independent film instance interpretations John Sayles Johnny Johnny's Lions Gate Love mainstream marketing masculinity means Mike Leigh million Miramax modernist movie Naked narrative Natural Born Killers normative realist October Orion Classics Orlando Pedro Almodóvar Peter Piano Pictures Pierson political avant-garde position postmodern practices production Pulp Fiction rape realism redemption release representational discourses Reservoir Dogs reviewers sexuality Shoot the Moon Shooting Gallery signifier Sleep with Anger social Sony Classics specific story Strand strategy studio Sundance tion tradition Travolta viewers Vincent violence Woman women York Zhang Yimou