American Independents

American Independents

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American Independents
  • Ganja & Hess

    Movie

    Directed by Bill Gunn • 1973 • United States
    Starring Duane Jones, Marlene Clark, Bill Gunn

    Straining the conventions of blaxploitation and horror through a singular avant-garde sensibility, Bill Gunn’s revolutionary independent landmark GANJA & HESS is a highly stylized and utterly original tre...

  • They Live

    Movie

    Directed by John Carpenter • 1988 • United States
    Starring Roddy Piper, Keith David, Meg Foster

    The ultimate Reagan-era rebuttal, John Carpenter’s subversive science-fiction satire follows a drifter (pro-wrestling legend Roddy Piper) who discovers that America is being controlled by yuppie alien...

  • The Glass Shield

    Movie

    Directed by Charles Burnett • 1994 • United States
    Starring Michael Boatman, Lori Petty, Ice Cube

    Charles Burnett’s powerful police drama follows J. J. Johnson (Michael Boatman), an idealistic rookie cop and the only Black officer in an all-white precinct, as he confronts racism and corruption w...

  • Dark Star

    Movie

    Directed by John Carpenter • 1974 • United States
    Starring Brian Narelle, Dan O'Bannon, Cal Kuniholm

    John Carpenter made his feature debut with this gleefully gonzo science-fiction satire, which began life as a student film and went on to become a cult classic. Onboard the titular spaceship, a t...

  • The Annihilation of Fish

    Movie

    Directed by Charles Burnett • 1999 • United States
    Starring James Earl Jones, Lynn Redgrave, Margot Kidder

    Virtually unseen for years only to reemerge as a lost gem of American independent cinema, this surprising, ineffably tender romantic comedy from master director Charles Burnett (KILLER OF S...

  • The Beaver

    Movie

    Directed by Jodie Foster • 2011 • United States, United Arab Emirates
    Starring Mel Gibson, Jodie Foster, Jennifer Lawrence

    Regrettably overshadowed by offscreen drama on its release, the boldest directorial effort to date from Jodie Foster is a searing portrait of midlife crisis with one of the ...

  • Ms .45

    Movie

    Directed by Abel Ferrara • 1981 • United States
    Starring Zoë Lund, Albert Sinkys, Darlene Stuto

    Abel Ferrara’s exploitation-scuzz classic takes place in the cesspool of 1980s New York, where mute garment-district worker Thana (Zoë Lund, who also cowrote Ferrara’s BAD LIEUTENANT) is raped once, t...

  • Come Back to the 5 & Dime Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean

    Movie + 1 extra

    Directed by Robert Altman • 1982 • United States
    Starring Cher, Sandy Dennis, Karen Black

    Twenty years after James Dean’s death, a group of former superfans in rural Texas—not far from where the movie star shot his final film, GIANT—gather in an old Woolworth’s five-and-dime store to celebrate h...

  • Towheads

    Movie

    Directed by Shannon Plumb • 2013 • United States
    Starring Shannon Plumb, Derek Cianfrance, Lora Lee Gayer

    Keatonesque slapstick meets woman-on-the-edge psychodrama in this singular, tonally audacious exploration of modern motherhood, performance, and identity. Displaying a brilliance for both ph...

  • Mallrats

    Movie

    Directed by Kevin Smith • 1995 • United States
    Starring Shannen Doherty, Jeremy London, Jason Lee

    Kevin Smith tapped into the Gen X zeitgeist once again with his hilariously, proudly sophomoric follow-up to CLERKS. When Brodie (Jason Lee) and TS (Jeremy London) are both dumped by their girlfrien...

  • Variety
    Movie + 1 extra

    Variety

    Movie + 1 extra

    Directed by Bette Gordon • 1983 • United States
    Starring Sandy McLeod, Will Patton, Richard M. Davidson

    The provocative, sexually charged tale of a woman’s journey of self-discovery, Bette Gordon’s independent landmark offers a bold challenge to conventional notions of feminism and pornography. ...

  • SubUrbia

    Movie

    Directed by Richard Linklater • 1997 • United States
    Starring Giovanni Ribisi, Parker Posey, Steve Zahn

    Eric Bogosian adapts his hit stage play for the screen with acclaimed director Richard Linklater in this drama inspired by their own experiences. When a famous rock star (Jayce Bartok) visits ...

  • Pilgrim, Farewell

    Movie

    Directed by Michael Roemer • 1980 • United States
    Starring Elizabeth Huddle, Christopher Lloyd, Elizabeth Franz

    Having chronicled the last days of terminally ill people for his documentary DYING, director Michael Roemer channeled his experiences making that film into this emotionally raw and wre...

  • Psycho Beach Party

    Movie

    Directed by Robert Lee King • 2000 • United States, Australia
    Starring Lauren Ambrose, Thomas Gibson, Nicholas Brendon

    Adapted from the play by camp icon Charles Busch, this wickedly satirical genre mash-up combines the GIDGET-style beach movie of the ’60s with the ’80s teen slasher for a wildly...

  • The Hungry Ghosts

    Movie

    Directed by Michael Imperioli • 2009 • United States
    Starring Steve Schirripa, Sharon Angela, Emory Cohen

    The directorial debut from “Sopranos” star Michael Imperioli is an intense, emotionally raw portrait of lost souls attempting to fill the spiritual voids at the center of their lives. Over t...

  • It Felt Like Love
    Movie + 1 extra

    It Felt Like Love

    Movie + 1 extra

    Directed by Eliza Hittman • 2013 • United States
    Starring Gina Piersanti, Jesse Cordasco, Giovanna Salimeni

    Set over the course of a languid South Brooklyn summer, this unflinchingly honest, refreshingly unsentimental tale of sexual exploration and awakening—the revelatory feature debut from wri...

  • 92 in the Shade

    Movie

    Directed by Thomas McGuane • 1975 • United States
    Starring Peter Fonda, Warren Oates, Margot Kidder

    Thomas McGuane adapted his own novel for this wonderfully weird, deadpan portrait of outsiders and oddballs living in Key West, Florida. Peter Fonda stars as a wannabe fishing guide who finds hims...

  • Delirious

    Movie

    Directed by Tom DiCillo • 2006 • United States
    Starring Steve Buscemi, Michael Pitt, Alison Lohman

    Having brilliantly lampooned the world of low-budget filmmaking in LIVING IN OBLIVION, director Tom DiCillo and Steve Buscemi reteamed for another wicked satire of the entertainment industry, prese...

  • Gypsy 83

    Movie

    Directed by Todd Stephens • 2001 • United States
    Starring Sara Rue, Birkett Turton, Karen Black

    Stevie Nicks superfan Gypsy (Sara Rue) and her best friend, Clive (Kett Turton), are a pair of outcasts stuck in small-town Ohio. When they learn about “The Night of 1,000 Stevies,” a look-alike conte...

  • Mapplethorpe

    Movie

    Directed by Ondi Timoner • 2018 • United States
    Starring Matt Smith, Marianne Rendón, John Benjamin Hickey

    One of the most important and controversial artists of the twentieth century, photographer Robert Mapplethorpe captured eroticism in a way that had never been seen before. Set during the 19...

  • Poison
    Movie + 1 extra

    Poison

    Movie + 1 extra

    Directed by Todd Haynes • 1991 • United States
    Starring Edith Meeks, Larry Maxwell, Susan Norman

    Inspired by the writings of Jean Genet, Todd Haynes’s debut feature deftly interweaves a trio of transgressive tales—“Hero,” “Horror,” and “Homo”—that build towards a devastating climax. “Hero,” shot...

  • Breakfast of Champions

    Movie

    Directed by Alan Rudolph • 1999 • United States
    Starring Bruce Willis, Albert Finney, Nick Nolte

    A totally unhinged vision of all-American madness, Alan Rudolph’s outré adaptation of the novel by Kurt Vonnegut plays something like a crazed, live-action cartoon as it follows the exploits of Dwayn...

  • Leaves of Grass
    Movie + 1 extra

    Leaves of Grass

    Movie + 1 extra

    Directed by Tim Blake Nelson • 2009 • United States
    Starring Edward Norton, Susan Sarandon, Richard Dreyfuss

    Director Tim Blake Nelson’s audacious, tonally assured blend of black comedy and crime thriller features a marvelous dual performance from Edward Norton as identical twins Bill and Brady ...

  • The Loveless

    Movie

    Directed by Kathryn Bigelow and Monty Montgomery • 1981 • United States
    Starring Willem Dafoe, Robert Gordon, Marin Kanter

    The first feature by both acclaimed director Kathryn Bigelow and future David Lynch producer Monty Montgomery, as well as the screen debut of star Willem Dafoe, this edgy, s...