A Companion to American Indie Film

Indie films have carved a striking niche in the American cinematic landscape in recent decades, but what exactly is an indie film? How can it be understood both as a distinct phenomenon and as part of broader American cultural trends?

A Companion to American Indie Film presents a comprehensive collection of original essays offering a state–of–the–art examination of key aspects of the indie film sector from its origins and evolution to a range of broader cultural contexts. Featuring contributions from distinguished film scholars and emerging voices in the field, this Companion examines the indie film from several perspectives, with a unique focus on what is signified by the term indie , as opposed to broader uses of independent . Central to the book is an understanding of indie as a specific film culture, an issue with which this volume begins and that informs many subsequent chapters. Other topics include: key historical moments and movements in indie film history; relationships between indie film and other indie media; and issues including class, gender, regional identity, online fundraising, and stardom in the indie field. Timely and thought–provoking, A Companion to American Indie Film is a significant contribution to the literature on American indie cinema.

Contributors viii

Acknowledgements xii

Introduction: What Indie Isn t Mapping the Indie Field 1
Geoff King

Part One Indie Culture 23

1 Indie Film as Indie Culture 25
Michael Z. Newman

2 The Making of the Indie Scene: The Cultural Production of a Field of Cultural Production 42
Sherry B. Ortner

3 Indie as Organic: Tracing Discursive Roots 58
Geoff King

Part Two Indie and Other Media 81

4 Quirky Culture: Tone, Sensibility, and Structure of Feeling 83
James MacDowell

5 Independent Intersections: Indie Music Cultures and American Indie Cinema 106
Jamie Sexton 

6 Post ]Cinema Soderbergh 129
Mark Gallagher 

Part Three Criticism, Marketing, and Positioning Indie 153

7 Structuring Indie and Beasts of the Southern Wild: The Role of Review Journalism 155
Erin Pearson 

8 Marketing American Indie in the Shadow of Hollywood 181
Finola Kerrigan 

Part Four Movements/Moments 207

9 Proto ]Indie: 1960s Half ]Way Cinema 209
Janet Staiger

10 From Independent to Indie: The Independent Feature Project and the Complex Relationship between American Independent Cinema and Hollywood in the 1980s 233
Yannis Tzioumakis 

11Going Mainstream: The Indie Film Movement in 1999 257
Thomas Schatz 

12 Looking through a Rearview Mirror: Mumblecore as Past Tense 279
J.J. Murphy

Part Five Indie as Regional 301

13 The Pull of Place: Regional Indie Film Production 303
Mary P. Erickson 

14 Rural Crimewave: Reconfiguring Regional Spaces through Genre in US Indie Cinema 325
John Berra 

Part Six Aesthetics and Politics 347

15 Life During Wartime: Emotionalism, Capitalist Realism, and Middle ]Class Indie Identity 349
Claire Perkins 

16 Indie Cinema and the Neoliberal Commodification of Creative Labor: Rethinking the Indie Sensibility of Christopher Nolan 368
Claire Molloy 

17 They Believe Every Fuckin Word Because You re Super Cool : Masculine Cool 90s Style in Reservoir Dogs 389
Stella Bruzzi

18 The Craft of Independent Filmmaking: Editing in John Sayles Return of the Secaucus Seven and Baby It s You 407
Warren Buckland 

Part Seven Kickstarting Indie 431

19 Crowdfunding, Independence, Authorship 433
Chuck Tryon 

20 Go Digital or Go Dark: Crowdfunding, Independent Financing, and Arthouse Exhibition on Kickstarter 452
Sarah E.S. Sinwell 

Part Eight Indie Acting and Stardom 469

21 Casing Indie Acting 471
Chris Holmlund 

22 Flexible Stardom: Contemporary American Film and the Independent Mobility of Star Brands 493
Paul McDonald 

Index 000

Geoff King is Professor of Film Studies at Brunel University London, UK. He is the author of numerous books on American film topics, including American Independent Cinema (2005), Indiewood, USA: Where Hollywood Meets Independent Cinema (2009), Indie 2.0: Change and Continuity in Contemporary American Indie Film (2014) and Quality Hollywood: Markers of Distinction in Contemporary Studio Film (2016).