This indispensable collection offers 51 chapters, each focused on a distinct American independent film.
Screening American Independent Film presents these films chronologically, addressing works from across more than a century (1915−2020), emphasizing the breadth and long duration of American independent cinema. The collection includes canonical examples as well as films that push against and expand the definitions of ""independence."" The titles run from micro-budget films through marketing-friendly Indiewood projects, from auteur-driven films and festival darlings to B-movies, genre pics, and exploitation films. The chapters also introduce students to different approaches within film studies including historical and contextual framing, industrial and institutional analysis, politics and ideology, genre and authorship, representation, film analysis, exhibition and reception, and technology.
Written by leading international scholars and emerging talents in film studies, this volume is the first of its kind. Paying particular attention to issues of diversity and inclusion for both the participating scholars and the content and themes within the selected films, Screening American Independent Film is an essential resource for anyone teaching or studying American cinema.
Introduction: On the Sweep of American Independent Film Histories 1. Two Knights of Vaudeville (1915) 2. Safety Last! (1923) 3. Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928) 4. Billy the Kid Returns (1938) 5. Detour (1945) 6. The Hitch-Hiker (1953) 7. The Man with the Golden Arm (1955) 8. Attack of the 50 Foot Woman (1958) 9. I Want to Live! (1958) 10. Color Me Blood Red (1965) 11. My Hustler (1965) 12. Portrait of Jason (1967) 13. Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969) 14. The Learning Tree (1969) 15. Wanda (1970) 16. Billy Jack (1971) 17. Deep Throat (1972) 18. Pink Flamingos (1972) 19. Dark Star (1974) 20. A Very Natural Thing (1974) 21. The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976) 22. Chan is Missing (1982) 23. One from the Heart (1982) 24. Choose Me (1984) 25. Desert Hearts (1986) 26. Down By Law (1986) 27. She’s Gotta Have It (1986) 28. Eight Men Out (1988) 29. sex, lies, and videotape (1989) 30. Paris Is Burning (1990) 31. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990) 32. My Own Private Idaho (1991) 33. Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992) 34. Pulp Fiction (1994) 35. Eve’s Bayou (1997) 36. Donnie Darko (2001) 37. The Royal Tenenbaums (2001) 38. Stranger Inside (2001) 39. Far from Heaven (2002) 40. Real Women Have Curves (2002) 41. American Splendor (2003) 42. Paranormal Activity (2007) 43. The Great Flood (2012) 44. Before Midnight (2013) 45. Dallas Buyers Club (2013) 46. Jason and Shirley (2015) 47. The Witch (2015) 48. 1985 (2018) 49. First Cow (2020) 50. The Forty-Year-Old Version (2020) 51. Nomadland (2020)
Justin Wyatt is an Associate Professor of Communication Studies, Film/Media, and Journalism at the University of Rhode Island. He is the author of The Virgin Suicides: Reverie, Sorrow and Young Love (Routledge) and the co-editor of Contemporary American Independent Film: From the Margins to the Mainstream (Routledge). He is completing a manuscript on qualitative and quantitative market research methods in the media industries. He has published in the fields of media history, film marketing, and media industry studies. Wyatt D. Phillips is an Associate Professor of Film and Media Studies in the English Department at Texas Tech University. His work primarily engages questions of the political economy of media production and circulation. His current book project considers the historical relationship between turn-of-the-century business culture and the significance of genre in early Hollywood. His publications include work on the economic structure and history of the American film industry, the rise of drive-in theaters, and Camp TV of the 1960s.
