{"id":85830,"date":"2023-05-01T18:19:24","date_gmt":"2023-05-01T18:19:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/?p=85830"},"modified":"2023-05-01T19:42:07","modified_gmt":"2023-05-01T19:42:07","slug":"uri-film-professor-picks-five-essential-american-indie-films","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2023\/05\/uri-film-professor-picks-five-essential-american-indie-films\/","title":{"rendered":"溏心vlog免费B站 film professor picks five essential American indie films"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 May 1, 2023 \u2013 For many, the term \u201cindependent film\u201d conjures images of cerebral, low-budget movies screened in small art house theaters or elite film festivals. But to Justin Wyatt, an associate professor of communication studies, journalism, and film media at the 溏心vlog免费B站, it\u2019s far more than that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAmerican independent cinema exists outside the mainstream,\u201d Wyatt said. \u201cThat could be anything from micro-budget movies to highly marketable \u2018Indiewood\u2019 films. It could be a film that\u2019s simply outside of the mainstream in terms of an ideological message. It might depict people who are marginalized or forgotten by mainstream society or entertainment. Or it could be something that\u2019s just aesthetically different from what we\u2019re used to seeing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most importantly, Wyatt says, indie film serves as a kind of laboratory, where boundaries are pushed\u2014or even obliterated\u2014and the future direction of film is charted out one groundbreaking scene at a time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIndie film is really about expanding our horizons in terms of what film can be, and what film can become,\u201d Wyatt said. \u201cIt\u2019s the lifeblood of artistry in moviemaking and the vehicle for moving American film forward.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a new book from Routledge Books called \u201cScreening American Independent Film<\/a>,\u201d Wyatt and co-editor W.D. Phillips from Texas Tech University present 50 new essays from leading scholars, each exploring a single film chosen from across the full history of American independent cinema. Each chapter is anchored by the key historical, political, stylistic, or industrial contexts that are necessary to fully understanding the film, while contributing new research, insights, and arguments to prevailing analyses.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere aren’t a lot of books that do a sweep of American independent film across decades, looking at how American independent film has changed and is also driving and responding to changes in American society,\u201d Wyatt said. \u201cThat’s what I feel the book does.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In anticipation of the book\u2019s release on May 31, we asked Wyatt to discuss five films that he considers essential viewing for fans of independent cinema.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
  1. \u201cDetour\u201d<\/strong> (1945) \u2013 Classic film noir<\/strong><\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Wyatt:<\/strong> \u201cDetour\u201d was a classic, no-budget film noir directed by Edward G. Ulmer. It\u2019s about a man who gets involved with a femme fatale who has him wrapped around her finger 8 million times. The film chronicles how his worldview is shifted as the relationship becomes corrosive, destructive and ultimately fatalistic. I see \u201cDetour\u201d as a great example of a simple story infused with the aesthetics and worldview of film noir, giving it a distinct mood and visual sense. It’s beautifully designed, has great acting and is wonderfully fast paced. You can tell that it was made for a nickel, but it\u2019s a prime example of how an indie director can make clever and ingenious decisions when faced with a low budget. It’s a gem of independent filmmaking from the \u201940s.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    • \u201cPink Flamingos\u201d (1972) \u2013 John Waters popularizes the \u201cmidnight movie\u201d<\/strong><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
      \"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

      Wyatt:<\/strong> This was the breakthrough film by the great John Waters. The marketing tagline for it was \u201cAn exercise in poor taste,\u201d and Waters did not disappoint\u2014and I mean that in the best way possible. It\u2019s basically about a director (played by the legendary drag performer, Divine) on a quest to be known as the filthiest person alive. The film revels in bad taste. In the process, Waters taking down middle class and bourgeois expectations\u2014even those of the art cinema and independent film crowd. This was a time when there were a lot of foreign films coming into the U.S. and small theaters were showing a lot of art house films. But it was clear that \u201cPink Flamingos\u201d didn\u2019t exactly fit with the Ingmar Bergmans, Federico Fellinis, and the Bernardo Bertoluccis of the world, which is part of why it was so refreshing.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Waters is a great independent filmmaker, but also someone with an incredible marketing imagination. He helped to show that independent films can make an impact commercially as well as artistically. With \u201cPink Flamingos,\u201d Waters helps create the midnight movie. I love the idea that you have these movies that are so offbeat and unique that they need to be shown at a different time of day\u2014at midnight. You have the mainstream films during the day, but late at night, when most people are sleeping, there\u2019s now this space for those who are a little bit more adventurous to see something different. That\u2019s a cultural shift.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      \"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
      • \u201cOne from the Heart\u201d (1982) \u2013 A celebrated director goes \u2018indie\u2019 in a big way<\/strong><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n

        Wyatt:<\/strong> When people think about independent film, they often think of little-known directors trying to scrape enough money together to start shooting. But with \u201cOne from the Heart,\u201d we have Francis ??Ford?? Coppola, one of the most celebrated directors of the 1970s who was fresh off huge hits like \u201cThe Godfather,\u201d \u201cThe Godfather, Part II\u201d and \u201cApocalypse Now.\u201d After those films, he wanted to do something different, which ended up being this romance that he made for his independent Zoetrope Studios.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        It\u2019s a very simple story about two people who have been together for several years, but argue and break up over a weekend. They each have a little fling with someone else and then they get back together. The narrative is hardly novel, but the way Coppola shot it was remarkable. It\u2019s set in Las Vegas, and Coppola essentially built the city completely inside a studio. To me, this a great example of an independent film that\u2019s incredibly creative aesthetically and artistically. I saw it when I was a young college student, and I didn\u2019t really remember the story or the acting. It was the imagery that stayed with me\u2014these amazing sets and the most beautiful neon-soaked images you can imagine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        It was incredibly expensive ($26 million) to make, and the kind of film that no mainstream studio would ever approve. It was also a commercial flop that wiped out Zoetrope Studios. Coppola spent years recovering from it by making big mainstream films like \u201cBram Stoker\u2019s Dracula.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        \"\"
        SHE”S GOTTA HAVE IT, Spike Lee, John Canada Terrell, Tommy Redmond Hicks, Tracy Camilla Johns, 1986, (c) Island Pictures<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
        • \u201cShe\u2019s Gotta Have It\u201d<\/strong> (1986) \u2013 Spike Lee launches a legendary career<\/strong><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n

          Wyatt:<\/strong> This was Spike Lee\u2019s feature debut and a groundbreaking independent film. It centers on Nola Darling (Tracy Camilla Johns), a black graphic artist, juggling three boyfriends. Rather than resort to stereotypes or patriarchal judgment, Lee presents this tale of sexual freedom and transgression as a bold comedy-drama. Despite the fact that it\u2019s a male director\u2019s point of view, the frank discussion of female sexuality was still pretty groundbreaking at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

          It was a big success as well. On a meager budget of $175,000, the film garnered more than $7 million at the box office. It really showed what a Black filmmaker working outside the studio system could do. And it set the stage for Lee\u2019s film \u201cDo the Right Thing\u201d three years later, which was a masterpiece and a studio picture that\u2019s one of the most important films of that decade, and maybe the second half of the 20th century.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

          \"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
          • \u201cPulp Fiction\u201d (1994) \u2013 Tarantino takes indie filmmaking to the stratosphere<\/strong><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n

            Wyatt:<\/strong> Quentin Tarantino is a fascinating figure to me because he\u2019s both a film historian and someone who has his finger on the pulse of pop culture. He can tap into the zeitgeist in a way that not a lot of filmmakers can, and that\u2019s what \u201cPulp Fiction\u201d did. The term \u201cpulp fiction\u201d refers to a genre of dime-store novels about all sorts of sordid things\u2014crime, violence, drugs, \u201cforbidden\u201d sexuality. \u201cPulp Fiction\u201d takes those stories and puts them into this collage of pop culture from the recent past\u2014along with witty dialogue and kitschy catch phrases. Meanwhile, he\u2019s experimenting with structure, editing and, cinematography marking a turning point in American film.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            And it was a huge hit\u2014an indie film that made $230 million. That\u2019s astonishing. It\u2019s an example of an indie film that rewrote the potential for indie filmmaking, and changed American culture as well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

            KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 May 1, 2023 \u2013 For many, the term \u201cindependent film\u201d conjures images of cerebral, low-budget movies screened in small art house theaters or elite film festivals. But to Justin Wyatt, an associate professor of communication studies, journalism, and film media at the 溏心vlog免费B站, it\u2019s far more than that. \u201cAmerican […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":85831,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-85830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85830"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85830\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85849,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85830\/revisions\/85849"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}