From Easy Rider to The Blair Witch Project, this book comprehensively studies the independent film scene and traces the changing ideas and definitions of independent cinema, and the diversity of independent film practices over the past thirty years. List of illustrations x Notes on contributors xii Acknowledgements xv 1 Introduction: from the margins to the mainstream 1(20) CHRIS HOLMLUND PART I Critical formations 21(48) 2 Introduction to 'critical formations' 23(4) CHRIS HOLMLUND 3 Ordinary people, European-style: or how to spot an independent feature 27(8) ANNETTE INSDORF 4 Independence for independents 35(6) JONAS MEKAS 5 Dimension Pictures: portrait of a 1970's independent 41(12) ED LOWRY 6 End of the indies: Death of the Sayles men 53(6) JON JOST 7 Alternative cinemas 59(12) DAVID E. JAMES PART II Cult film/cool film 69(54) 8 'Queen of the indies': Parker Posey's niche stardom and the taste cultures of independent film 71(18) DIANE NEGRA 9 Dark, disturbing, intelligent, provocative, and quirky: avant-garde cinema of the 1980s and 1990s 89(18) JOAN HAWKINS 10 Communitarianism, film entrepreneurism, and the crusade of Troma Entertainment 107(16) IAN CONRICH PART III Iconoclasts and auteurs 123(54) 11 John Sayles, independent filmmaker: 'Bet on yourself' 125(16) DIANE CARSON 12 Haile Gerima: 'Sacred shield of culture' 141(14) MARK A. REID 13 Seminal fantasies: Wakefield Poole, pornography, independent cinema and the avant-garde 155(22) JOSE R. CAPINO PART IV Identity hooks [--] cultural binds 175 14 Generation Q's ABCs: queer kids and 1990's independent films 177(16) CHRIS HOLMLUND 15 Just another girl outside the neo-indie 193(18) CHRISTINA LANE 16 Guests at The Wedding Banquet: the cinema of the Chinese diaspora and the rise of the American independents 211(16) GINA MARCHETTI PART V Shifting markets, changing media 227(56) 17 Revisiting 1970's independent distribution and marketing strategies 229(16) JUSTIN WYATT 18 Digital deployment(s) 245(20) PATRICIA R. ZIMMERMAN 19 The IFC and Sundance: channeling independence 265(18) ROBERT EBERWEIN Index 283