Sundance
Who: Started by Robert Redford
What: Sundance Institute (1979)
United States Film Festival and later renamed the Sundance Film Festival
Sundance Institute and Film Film Festival
Why:
1.To help emerging/independent filmmakers with the art and craft of storytelling/making films
2.To give filmmakers a place to exhibit films and look for a distributor
The Sundance Institute
The Sundance Institute provides year round support for filmmakers through Filmmaker labs including screenwriting, editing, music.
The Sundance Institute also provides grants for development through post-production
Sundance Film Festival
The Sundance Film Festival takes place each January in Park City, Utah.
It is the largest independent film festival in the United States
The festival comprises competitive sections for American and International dramatic and documentary films.
Some of the Biggest Box Office Hits to Come Out of Sundance
The Blair Witch Project (1999) $104.5 million
Little Miss Sunshine (2006) $59.9. Million
Four Weddings and a Funeral ((2009) $47.6 million
500 Days of Summer (2009) $32.4 million
Memento (2001) $25.5 million
Boyhood (2014) $25.4 million
Miramax
Who: Founded by the Weinstein Brothers, Harvey and Bob Weinstein
What: Distribution – and later a Production Company named for their parents Miriam and Max.
Why: Created to distribute Independent films deemed commercially unfeasible by the major studios.
Miramax
The Independent Era (1979 - 1993)
Breakthrough Films:
Sex, Lies, and Videotape
Pulp Fiction
Clerks
Shakespeare in Love
Disney Era (1993-2010)
1.Miramax was purchased by Disney for $60 million dollars
2.Harvey and Bob Weinstein continued to operate Miramax until they left in 2005.
3.Disney had final say on all films
1.With a more stable budget, Miramax moved beyond acquisitions and distribution into production
2.Harvey Weinstein funded larger projects and also financed up and coming directors including
What is an Independent Film?
1.Robert Rodriguez (El Mariachi)
2.Gus Van Sant (Drugstore Cowboy)
3.Quentin Tarantino (Reservoir Dogs)
What defines Indie film has been argued ad nauseam?
“Independent usually meant anything that was an alternative to recipe films or mainstream films made by studios.”
-Sydney Pollack
INDIE FILMS WERE ANYTHING HOLLYWOOD WAS NOT
1.If Hollywood made “movies,” Indies made “Films.”
2.If Hollywood sold fantasy and escapism, Indies thrived on realsim and engagement
3.If Hollywood avoided controversial subjects, Indies embraced them
4. If Hollywood movies were expensive, Indie films were cheap
5. If Hollywood preferred stars, Indies preferred unknowns, even non-actors.
6. If Hollywood retained final cut, Indies demanded it for themselves.
7. If Hollywood overused genres and dropped movies out of cookie cutters, Indie films expressed personal visions and were therefore unique and sequel-proof.
8. If Hollywood made movies by committee, Indies were made by individual sensibilities whereby the filmmaker wrote as well as directed and sometimes shot and edited as well.
9. While Hollywood employed directors hired to do a job, Indies were filmmakers who “worshipped at the altar of art.”
10. Hollywood favored spectacle action, and special effects while Indies worked on a more intimate scale favoring script and character.
American New Wave Filmmakers of the 1980s-1990s
Jim Jarmusch
Coen Brothers
David Lynch
Allison Anders
Richard Linklater
Quentin Tarantino
Steven Soderbergh
Richard Linklater
Spike Lee
Susan Seidelman