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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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 ...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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. ...

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 ...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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 ...

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...