Page 207 - Battleground The Media Volume 1 and 2

1 | Independent C nema: The Myth and Necess ty of D st nct on

1989–90—New independent cinema and the proliferation of Miramax: Sex, Lies, and Vid-
eotape (Steven Soderbergh).
1991—Relaunch of the Sundance Film Festival.
1992–94—New indie sensibilities: Les nuits fauves (Cyril Collard), Claire of the Moon
(Nicole Conn), Gas Food Lodging (Allison Anders), Jungle Fever (Spike Lee), Dazed
and Confused (Richard Linklater), Even Cowgirls Get the Blues (Gus Van Sant), Go Fish
(Troch), Totally F**ed Up (Greg Araki), Amateur (Hal Hartley), Clerks (Kevin Smith), and
Reservoir Dogs (Quentin Tarantino).
1996—Launch of the European Fantastic Film Festivals Federation (Melies).
2000—Indie and mainstream conflation: American Beauty (Sam Mendes), Erin Brockov-
ich, and Traffic (Steven Soderbergh).

ThrEE momEnTs oF momEnTum
There are, largely, three moments in the history of cinema in which discus-
sions over the distinction mainstream–independent have determined how we
understand film and its relationship to culture: (1) the period around World
War I, stretching out into the 1920s as far as the advent of sound, when Holly-
wood installed itself as the center of commercial filmmaking; (2) the late 1950s,
stretching out into the 1970s, when the French nouvelle vague set the tone for
a new framework in which auteurs (usually directors) became a pivotal mech-
anism of discussions of cinema; (3) and the late 1980s/early 1990s, stretch-
ing out across the 1990s, in which American independent cinema evolved
from a single-person endeavor into a close and often comfortable alliance
with mainstream Hollywood—encapsulated in that fashionable hybrid term:
“Indiewood.”
Before we examine each in turn, though, first a qualification: it is a gross
generalization to claim that outside these three moments the distinction was
not present, or relevant. The moments in film history that fall outside the three
key ones remain relevant, as points of inspiration of resistance. For instance,
early 1930s exploitation cinema, in and around Hollywood, can safely be re-
garded as relating as much to the mainstream–independent distinction as any
other moment, as the production and reception histories of Dracula, Franken-
stein, Freaks, King Kong, and less reputable films testify. Another qualification
relates to the institutionalization of the term “independent.” While the term
“mainstream” is equally elusive, it is frequently employed, unproblematically
so. But “independent” seems, by its very nature of “outsidership,” to be asking
for challenge. The three moments explored in more detail here have all con-
sciously employed the label “independent” or “indie” as a trademark term to
identify parties during a certain period. In each case, the term originated as a
resistance against what was perceived as a monopolistic situation. But in each
case it remained active even when the situation had changed dramatically, and
“independents” seemed to have become very much like the institution they
resisted.