But other ideas and formations are also always in play, representing alternatives to the dominant culture with the potential for change if not radical transformation. 2000. He said, “Absolutely not, I’ d rather put it on Google Video” (ibid.). From the point of view of the indie world, independent films are made from passion, from the filmmaker’s intense personal commitment (personal is another keyword here) to tell a particular story in a particular way. This happens because hegemon restores the balance of power in all the states that is ruled by the hegemon which in turn helps in resolving terrorist activities. He made The Lives of Others [which went on to win many prizes] for $2 million. , Erwin Z, Comment Closed, March 10, 2016 The present article draws on interviews, panel discussions, filmmaker Q & As, and other contexts in which independent film people talk about what they are trying to do: to make what one indie producer called “movies that matter.”. I’ m Scandinavian. Cinema of outsiders: The rise of American independent film. Josh Horowitz. Why did a movement toward such a harsh view of life emerge when it did? , Comment Closed, March 20, 2016 Or we earlier heard Hollywood-oriented producer Ursula Jackson (condescendingly) describe independent films as “almost documentary,…so involved in true life.”. Accessed September 14, 2010, http://trulyfreefilm.hopeforfilm.com/2010/07/the-good-machine-no-budget-commandments.html. At the same time there is much greater emphasis on reaching and indeed creating the audience that will appreciate these films. Since it is utmost essential that a hegemon must have all the necessary military force and national power to forge new international laws and organizations, it has been noted that hegemonic nations spends a large sum of money for honing and developing their military and para-military skills, that leads to the growth and prosperity of industries those who caterer to such skills. At the 2007 awards ceremony, a short film was shown at the beginning of the ceremony. Sherry B. Ortner is Distinguished Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Insofar as the independent film movement tries to position itself in opposition to mainstream culture, I am less interested in deconstructing and debunking their self-constructions (and their films), and more interested in exploring the oppositional political potential in those claims (and those films). I asked him about the degree to which he thought independent filmmakers do or should listen to the advice and feedback of others. Editor's Note: The Ridley Scott movie 'Body of Lies,' starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe, is based on David Ignatius's latest novel, and is due to be released this fall. I like to be pushed off my center when I go to the movies. Kevin Smith talked about his bad experience with Jersey Girl (2004), which was made by Miramax/Disney; it involved expensive stars (especially Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez), and it earned mostly very bad reviews: I had to actually listen to studio notes [comments]…. Geoff King. In order to get to these points about truth and realism, I need to work through the discourse of pleasing or not pleasing the audience. His work has been called into question as part of the critique of the culture concept more generally, and also because of his commitment to the now largely discredited “modernization theory.” Nonetheless, his theorizing of the formal (as opposed to political) aspects of culture, as used here, remains powerful. Independent filmmakers see themselves as challenging the hegemony of Hollywood, eschewing entertainment—fantasy, pleasure, happy endings—and offering instead harsh and “edgy” stories about life in contemporary society. Lower the budget! Yes, there is no single story, no single character…. Her forthcoming book on the independent film world is called Not Hollywood: Independent film at the twilight of the American dream. The Hollywood … He said, “People are not in this for the money.” (Fieldnotes, February 24, 2007). [emphatically] We made a decision. I asked David if he would compromise the film by adding narration or other signposts, since that might enhance the possibility of getting a television contract. Pierre Bourdieu. I will not be doing what is called “discourse analysis” in linguistic anthropology, a method that entails a close, and relatively technical, examination of conversational texts. So is Mark Borchardt, hero of Chris Smith’s documentary, American Movie (1999), who had no job, who scrounged money from relatives, and who cast his entire family in a little horror film called Coven (2000). Newsweek film critic Ramin Setoodeh complained that between 2005 and 2009 “roughly three fourths of all the films [nominated for Academy Awards] fixated on death” and described many films as “piling on the pain” in what “is starting to feel like Misery Porn.” (2009: 70) David Denby of the New Yorker described a recent indie as “grating, almost punitive” (see Denby 2010 on Margot at the Wedding). If you are a local artist, look into our artist sponsorship program. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press. “The good machine no-budget commandments,” Truly Free Film, Hope for Film (blog). I remember getting into arguments with people who were like, “Oh, you just care about the audience.” (quoted in Horowitz 2006: 107). (quoted in Waxman 2006: 155, italics added). The devil’s candy: The anatomy of a Hollywood fiasco. , Erwin Z, Comment Closed, March 1, 2016 He replied: I think it [varies from] movie to movie. 1993. That’s why … In both films, idealistic independent filmmakers are crushed when they try to work within a studio context. David Harvey. Or are we Hollywoodizing foreign talents like Javier Bardem and Marion Cotillard? : 11). The Independent Spirit Awards still have a category called the John Cassavetes Award, given to films with budgets of $500,000 or less. This will be one of them and I may make it and crash and burn and it will never see the light of day but screw it. The film, showing Kabul as a heartbreakingly ruined city but its people as survivors, is presented with no narration, no story line, and no clarifying information for the viewer. Meliya. American independent cinema. Posted Dec 07, 2014 If one listens to the discourse in conjunction with watching the films, the short answer is something like this: Independent films seek to tell the truth about contemporary society. Despite being hit hard by the Great Recession since about 2007, and despite widespread (but questionable) pronouncements that independent film has collectively sold out to Hollywood, the movement still retains a good deal of artistic and political independence and force. Stuart Klawans. (Vachon 2006: 75), If we look back at many of the comments disparaging “Hollywood” or “American audiences” quoted earlier for other purposes, we can see in them too that the issue is one of truth or realism or both. For a good overall history of the movies, including both Hollywood and extra- or anti-Hollywood, see Mast and Kawin (2011). David. Of course truthfulness is not necessarily the same thing as realism. “Deep play: Notes on the Balinese cockfight.” In The interpretation of cultures, by Clifford Geertz, 412–54. I indicated earlier that some independent producers and filmmakers can get quite angry about what Hollywood films are doing and saying. Please rate this article: on Benefits of hegemonic stability theory. But life is not about happy endings. 1. It has been observed by the historians that when a hegemon exercises leadership, either through coercion, diplomacy or persuasion, it actually deploys its “preponderance of power’ which proves beneficial for the states which accepts its hegemony. The discourse of independent filmmaking is always a reactive discourse, always set strongly against certain stereotypical notions of “Hollywood.” Producer Larry Drubner* called Hollywood blockbusters “disgusting” (interview, March 23, 2007), and said, “I don’ t love the industry, I hate it.”6 Independent filmmaker Ramin Bahrani (e.g., Man Push Cart, Chop Shop) said Hollywood movies “just don’ t make any sense. , Erwin Z Where Hollywood films seek to provide escape and fantasy, independent films seek to tell realist or hyper(bolic)-realist stories about the world as it really is, in all its ugliness and cruelty, or all its weirdness and strangeness, and if this makes audiences uncomfortable, so be it. We have already seen that many independent filmmakers refuse to try to please the audience. In using portraits of other cultural patterns to reflect self-critically on our own ways, anthropology disrupts common sense and makes us reexamine our taken-for-granted assumptions” (1986: 1). Most independent filmmakers5 would not use a language of “cultural critique.” But they do have very strong ideas about the importance of “independence,” which is to say, independence from Hollywood and all that it stands for. My life, anyone’s life, is more like a muddle, and these [Hollywood] movies are just dangerous garbage. London: Penguin Books. Available online: www.aotcpress.com/articles/neoliberalism. New York: Simon and Schuster. (I am, on the other hand, interested in contestations over the discourse itself, but that is a different issue and unfortunately I do not have the space to explore it within the confines of this article.) “Public culture” in this context is intended as a way of grasping how culture works in a globalizing world, a world in which cultural products circulate and confront one another on a vast and always-in-motion global terrain. 2001. Independent filmmakers hope their films will find an audience—they certainly have to persuade their financial backers that their films will find an audience—but ultimately they are ready to say to hell with the audience if necessary. Other parts of the study include a history of the post-1980s independent film movement,9 the social profiles of producers and filmmakers, a participant-observational account of production work on film sets, and more. (Fieldnotes, February 26, 2007)8. BRITAIN 1926 - 95% of films on British screens were American John Maynard Keynes - 'Death to Hollywood' - Hollywood's invasion of Britain Arbiter of National Identity - 'They talk America, think America, and dream America. For some people it expresses a genuine and deep-seated personal animosity toward Hollywood and its products. Many independent filmmakers by contrast make films to please only themselves and a small handful of people who share their tastes. And I have read these cultural forms as, in the famous Geertzian phrase, the stories indie people tell themselves about themselves (Geertz 1973b: 448).10, The second sense derives from Arjun Appadurai and Carol Breckenridge’s development of the concept in the context of naming the journal they founded in the late 1980s, Public Culture.