There was a time in the late 1970s when the term independent filmmaking was synonymous with Lenny Lipton’s book of the same name (Lipton being the guy who wrote the lyrics to “Puff the Magic Dragon“ amongst other things). For Lipton, independent filmmaking signified the micro-buget productions of filmmakers ranging from Stan Brakhage to Fred Wiseman. These films by virtue of their small scale economic footprint (Sociologist Pierre Bourdieu would call it ”restricted production“) could present their vision (ideas, concepts, approach, style, content) as the work of an individual artist or creator presented to a self-selective audience of highly engaged spectators. While this style of filmmaking fit with the model of the romantic genius artist that had developed under industrial capitalism (and, in fact, in response to industrial capitalism) it also represented the actuality of the process of production that these films entailed. A single individual could craft a film based on the industrial tools available at a quite modest expense.
Now, there seems to be some gathering consensus that independent filmmaking is coming to an end because the major studios are closing down the boutique studio brands that were acquired during the frenzy of the 1990’s Sundance style of independent filmmaking. For all of his creativity – and his film The Limey is one of my favorites – Steven Soderbergh’s cinematic output is simply a variation on the narrative techniques and tropes of mainstream Hollywood style. This is another example of the myopia of critics and viewers who fail to conceive of media as anything other than the conventional commercial approaches to production that are driven by cash. For the most part, independent seems to mean that the filmmaker needs to come begging for financial support, hat in hand. The end product remains similar in style and form to the larger scale production that is green-lighted with less trepidation.
Obviously, there is a world of media production that flies under the radar of mainstream promotion and criticism. It use to exist on video tape. Before that it lived on 16mm and super-8 film stock. Now it exists on the web. The heirs to Stan Brakhage are to be found in cyberspace. A romantic location perhaps – read William Gibson’s work to see how romanticized the Internet can be. The avant-garde as a political and aesthetic impulse was depleted long ago, but the underlying impulse, a resistance to modernity and capitalism, needs to be reinvigorated with every generation or we simply capitulate to the powers that be. Not a smart move on anyone’s part – left, right, or moderate.
