American Independent Cinema

This introduction to American Independent Cinema offers both a comprehensive industrial and economic history of the sector from the early twentieth century to the present and a study of key individual films, filmmakers and film companies. Readers will develop an understanding of the complex dynamic relations between independent and mainstream American cinema. The main argument revolves around the idea that independent American cinema has developed alongside mainstream Hollywood cinema with institutional, industrial and economic changes in the latter shaping and informing the former. Consequently the term independent has acquired different meanings at different points in the history of Hollywood cinema, evolving according to the impact of changing conditions in the American film industry. These various meanings are examined in the course of the book.