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David Lynch

‘FILMMAKER’ POINTS OUT THE NINE CAPRICES OF AMERICAN INDEPENDENT CINEMA

The American magazine FilmMaker – The Magazine of Independent Film published an article in its winter 2007 edition (volume 15, # 2), that was simultaneous to the Sundance Festival, with the nine new manias and/or tendencies of indie production in the USA.

Journalist Scott Macaulay, on the occasion of the famous festival that happens in Utah, decided to make an enquiry of independent films seen in 2006 to draw a balance of its immediate trends. The first item spotted by him was the real fever of viral inclusion caused by YouTube, especially after this site, which offers for free all kinds of small audiovisual productions, was acquired by Google for the significant amount of US$ 1,65 billion. Macaulay even comments that indie filmmakers are not really active in this new format, but YouTube became a mania in the community and was a theme for parties in New York and Los Angeles, in which partygoers plunge into this generous homemade production.

Secondly, cinema critics in the internet were mentioned. The journalist argues that for a long time already the serious cinema critic has been leaving daily press to establish itself online. The absence of space limitation for text and a greater (or total) flexibility of publicity made space for opinion in sites and blogs. Filmmakers started testing the ups and downs of the general assessment of their films at the sites Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic. On the other hand, there are more and more groups of active critics holding sites and blogs. The discussion themes usually have a wide scope – according to Macaulay, it goes from Michelle Pfeiffer to Abel Ferrara and Tex Avery – and gives new clothing to old movie club discussions. At last, the journalist declares the independence of this movie critics enabled also to call the attention of very small films, such as "Mutual Appreciation" (in the 30th Mostra), by Andrew Bujalski, that only in this way had its place in several top ten lists.

The third point is the return of DIY (do it yourself) distribution. After filmmakers as William Castle and John Cassavetes, it was now David Lynch’s turn to add to this process with his last work, “Inland Empire”. It is totally in fashion (even if not always profitable) to come to movie theaters holding one’s own film (especially now, when many of these don’t need to be in movie cans). And Lynch, for example, wanted to have the creative control of the release campaign of his film, besides having planned to release it last year, to give Laura Dern a chance of an Oscar nomination. Group blog Indie Features 06, by director Sujewa Ekanayake, supports filmmakers moving to DIY.

Fourth, Macaulay mentions day-and-date distribution, which is simultaneous release of a film in theaters, cable TV and DVD, under the argument of satisfying consumers’ demand and saving on general publicizing costs. The experimental film "Bubble", which Steven Soderbergh made in HD with non-professional actors, was a test case. Right after releasing blockbuster "Lemony Snicket`s A Series of Unfortunate Events", director Brad Silberling used this system to release "10 Items or Less", co-produced by Morgan Freeman. And "The Wind That Shakes the Barley" (30th Mostra), by Ken Loach, Golden Palm in Cannes 2006, also arrived to American screens like that.

Next, the article talks about the ever less visible “second film”. Formerly, a cheered and possibly well-succeeded first film opened doors to countless invitations for second works. That is not the picture nowadays. The list of filmmakers queuing to go on with their careers gets longer every year. Besides basic problems as debts, expectation and financing, Macaulay accuses many first time filmmakers of making such personal works, that now they don’t know what to talk about afterwards.

A theme that is still bound to lots of controversy is films remix. Side effect of online technological possibilities, it gets easier and easier to play with others’ material, as it has been done with pop music for decades. Internet was flooded, for example, of parodies of "Brokeback Mountain" (29th Mostra). Filmmaker Richard Linklater offered the trailer and publicizing material of "A Scanner Darkly" (30th Mostra) for its fans to re-build. And big studios try to gain positions in the fast race of mixing and offer a service (ScreenBites), in which fans can insert film clips in any blogs or homemade films.

The journalist deals next with the death of Robert Altman. There is little to say: he is one of the masters of authoring and independent spirit. Period. Eighth topic is digital download, the offer of films to be downloaded online. Reflexes of this phenomenon are Google Video and iTunes Movie Store, by Apple, which has a catalogue of studios affiliated to Disney. This access form is still in its first steps, but has been little explored so far that can revolution (or revolve) the market even more.

Finally, he identified in the indie production a natural wave of documentaries about Iraq war. "The War Tapes", by Deborah Scranton, was released in the USA using the referred “day-and-date” scheme. Names like "Iraq in Fragments ", by James Longley, and "Ghosts of Abu Ghraib", by Rory Kennedy, were selected for Brazilian It’s all true – 12the International Documentary Film Festival. As always, indie camera turns its lenses to some of the most urgent subjects. This, at least, hasn’t changed.