1st Edition
Screening American Independent Film
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 to Screening American Independent Film (2023)
W.D. Phillips & Justin Wyatt
Ch. 1 Two Knights of Vaudeville (1915)
Allyson Nadia Field
Ch. 2 Safety Last! (1923)
Christina G. Petersen
Ch. 3 Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928)
Peter Krämer
Ch. 4 Billy the Kid Returns (1938)
W.D. Phillips
Ch. 5 Detour (1945)
Todd Berliner
Ch. 6 The Hitch-Hiker (1953)
Lisa Dombrowski
Ch. 7 The Man with the Golden Arm (1955)
Philip Drake & Nessa Johnston
Ch. 8 Attack of the 50 Foot Woman (1958)
Jamie Hook
Ch. 9 I Want to Live! (1958)
Peter Labuza
Ch. 10 Color Me Blood Red (1965)
Murray Leeder
Ch. 11 My Hustler (1965)
Kevin John Bozelka
Ch. 12 Portrait of Jason (1967)
James Morrison
Ch. 13 Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969)
Cynthia Lucia
Ch. 14 The Learning Tree (1969)
Arthur Knight
Ch. 15 Wanda (1970)
Pamela Robertson Wojcik
Ch. 16 Billy Jack (1971)
Nicholas Godfrey
Ch. 17 Deep Throat (1972)
José B. Capino
Ch. 18 Pink Flamingos (1972)
Nathan Koob
Ch. 19 Dark Star (1974)
Nitin Govil
Ch. 20 A Very Natural Thing (1974)
Matt Connolly
Ch. 21 The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976)
Sam Littman
Ch. 22 Chan is Missing (1982)
Cynthia Baron
Ch. 23 One from the Heart (1982)
Justin Wyatt
Ch. 24 Choose Me (1984)
Caryl Flinn
Ch. 25 Desert Hearts (1986)
Chelsea McCracken
Ch. 26 Down By Law (1986)
Yannis Tzioumakis
Ch. 27 She’s Gotta Have It (1986)
Apryl Lewis
Ch. 28 Eight Men Out (1988)
Aaron Baker
Ch. 29 sex, lies, and videotape (1989)
Michael Z. Newman
Ch. 30 Paris Is Burning (1990)
Michele Meek
Ch. 31 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990)
Cortland Rankin
Ch. 32 My Own Private Idaho (1991)
Daniel Herbert
Ch. 33 Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992)
Rick Warner
Ch. 34 Pulp Fiction (1994)
Scott L. Baugh
Ch. 35 Eve’s Bayou (1997)
Kristi McKim
Ch. 36 Donnie Darko (2001)
Claire Parkinson
Ch. 37 The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)
Warren Buckland
Ch. 38 Stranger Inside (2001)
Kathleen McHugh
Ch. 39 Far from Heaven (2002)
Ken Feil
Ch. 40 Real Women Have Curves (2002)
Mirasol Enríquez
Ch. 41 American Splendor (2003)
Alberto Zambenedetti
Ch. 42 Paranormal Activity (2007)
Aslı Ildır
Ch. 43 The Great Flood (2012)
Dale Hudson & Patricia R. Zimmermann
Ch. 44 Before Midnight (2013)
Chuck Tryon
Ch. 45 Dallas Buyers Club (2013)
Mark Gallagher
Ch. 46 Jason and Shirley (2015)
Alexendra Juhasz
Ch. 47 The Witch (2015)
Alex Brannan
Ch. 48 1985 (2018)
Daniel Humphrey
Ch. 49 First Cow (2020)
J.J. Murphy
Ch. 50 The Forty-Year-Old Version (2020)
Sarah E.S. Sinwell
Ch. 51 Nomadland (2020)
Geoff King
Biography
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.
