{"id":12,"date":"2007-05-16T11:51:44","date_gmt":"2007-05-16T16:51:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jjmurphyfilm.com\/blog\/?p=12"},"modified":"2021-08-26T09:14:14","modified_gmt":"2021-08-26T14:14:14","slug":"12","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jjmurphyfilm.com\/blog\/2007\/05\/16\/12\/","title":{"rendered":"The State of American Indies"},"content":{"rendered":"

I talked about the identity crisis facing American independent cinema in my recent book on indie screenwriting. It\u2019s been a topic of discussion almost from the start, as evidenced by Jonas Mekas\u2019s criticism of the second \u201cscripted” version of John Cassavetes\u2019 Shadows<\/em> as \u201cjust another Hollywood film.” Jon Jost\u2019s premature declaration of the indie movement\u2019s death in an article in Film Comment<\/em> in 1989 would serve as another important historical marker, as would Ted Hope\u2019s similar conclusions in a 1995 issue of Filmmaker<\/em>. Sparked by the lack of emerging talent at this year\u2019s Sundance Film Festival, Sight & Sound<\/em>\u2019s April cover story also decries the cooption of a truly alternative practice.<\/p>\n

There is, of course, much truth in Michael Atkinson\u2019s largely cultural analysis of the phenomenon facing American independent filmmakers, in which he sees a shift from social interaction to self-absorption as a result of a preoccupation with new technologies. He writes: \u201cToday, we are consumers first, citizens second, and the castle of distraction we\u2019ve built around ourselves is itself little more than a series of revenue streams devised to exploit us.” In terms of a truly independent practice, Atkinson asks what is there to make films about when \u201ceveryone\u2019s too comfortably busy being entertained, intoxicated, distracted and market-researched.” Yet he finds some glimmer of hope in the self-distributed work of David Lynch and Andrew Bujalski, along with filmmakers such as Gus Van Sant, Todd Solondz, Lodge Kerrigan, and Kelly Reichardt.<\/p>\n

Despite her acknowledgement of some strong isolated features over the past several years, Amy Taubin contends that \u201conly two US filmmakers \u2013 Richard Kelly and Andrew Bujalski \u2013 made me think they had a shot at having careers as significant as Todd Haynes, Richard Linklater, Gus Van Sant, Spike Lee, David Lynch or Jim Jarmusch.” Her email quote from Bujalski (Funny Ha Ha<\/em> and Mutual Appreciation<\/em>) seems a bit odd within the context of the Atkinson\u2019s critique. Bujalski writes of his intention to shoot another small low budget project, suggesting that \u201cas the unsustainability of this endeavor becomes more & more pressing it seems like I\u2019ve got to make a small film now or never, certainly it would be harder to go \u2018back\u2019 if the studio project I\u2019ve been hired onto comes to fruition.”<\/p>\n

The mainstream film industry has the ability to co-opt independence, including Bujalski\u2019s desire to make another small low-budget feature. Yet what\u2019s not mentioned in Sight & Sound<\/em> article is that there\u2019s another alternative out there, namely the art world. One only has to go to a major gallery, art fair, museum, or biennial to realize that half of the work shown involves film or video in some form or another. While the big galleries have their own issues (which I shouldn\u2019t minimize), the art world is at least a lot more willing to allow artists the freedom to realize their vision than executives of film companies. Artists such Matthew Barney, Eija-Liisa Ahtila, Yang Fudong, Diana Thater, and Jane and Louise Wilson are striking examples. If Bill Viola, Pierre Huyghe, and Jesper Just can have galleries and museums commission large-budget projects, I easily could see David Lynch and Gus Van Sant receiving the same type of financing and by-passing the studios as well. Art magazines today are also writing about film in ways they haven\u2019t before, so I\u2019m not at all surprised to find David Lynch on the cover of the March issue of the highly influential Art Review<\/em> with the heading: \u201cDavid Lynch Takes on the Art World.” The article discusses his current show \u201cThe Air Is on Fire” at Foundation Cartier in Paris, which features work in a variety of media: painting, drawing, photography, installation, sound, and film.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I talked about the identity crisis facing American independent cinema in my recent book on indie screenwriting. It\u2019s been a topic of discussion almost from the start, as evidenced by Jonas Mekas\u2019s criticism of the second \u201cscripted” version of JohnRead More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":22,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jjmurphyfilm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jjmurphyfilm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jjmurphyfilm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jjmurphyfilm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jjmurphyfilm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.jjmurphyfilm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4256,"href":"https:\/\/www.jjmurphyfilm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12\/revisions\/4256"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jjmurphyfilm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jjmurphyfilm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jjmurphyfilm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jjmurphyfilm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}