Independent Film
An independent film, or indie film, is a film that is produced outside of any major film studio. Originally, this term denoted independence
from Paramount Pictures, MGM, Twentieth Century Fox, Warner Bros., RKO, Universal Pictures and Columbia Pictures, the 7 major studio entities
which controlled the production, distribution, and exhibition of films in the US from the early 1920s through 1950s. Though its oligopolistic
practices were officially ended by the Paramount Decision in 1948, all seven Golden Age majors continue to exist in one form or another
as major Hollywood studio entities through 2009. Independent films today are generally defined as American films financed and distributed
by sources outside today's Big Six and its subsidiaries.
Though film production companies in other countries have at times achieved and maintained full integration in a manner similar to Hollywood's
Big Five, the Hollywood system and style remain uniquely American in character and origin. As such, films produced outside the United States
are generally qualified as foreign rather than independent.
History of Independent Film
Resistance to the Edison Trust:
The roots of independent film can be traced back to filmmakers in the 1900s who resisted the control of a trust called the Motion Picture Patents
Company or "Edison Trust."
The Motion Picture Patents Company, founded in December 1908, was a trust of all the major film companies (Edison, Biograph, Vitagraph, Essanay,
Selig, Lubin, Kalem, American Star, American Pathé), the leading distributor (George Kleine) and the biggest supplier of raw film, Eastman Kodak.
At the time of the formation of the MPPC, Thomas Edison owned most of the major patents relating to motion pictures, including that for raw film.
The MPPC vigorously enforced its patents, constantly bringing suits and receiving injunctions against independent filmmakers. Because of this,
a number of filmmakers responded by building their own cameras and moving their operations to Hollywood, California, where the distance from
Edison's home base of New Jersey made it more difficult for the MPPC to enforce its patents.
The Edison Trust was soon ended by two decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States: one in 1912, which canceled the patent on raw film,
and a second in 1915, which cancelled all MPPC patents. Though these decisions succeeded at legalizing independent film, they would do little
to remedy the de facto ban on small productions; the independent filmmakers who had fled to Southern California during the enforcement of the
trust had already laid the groundwork for the studio system of classical Hollywood cinema.
The studio system replaces Edison:
In early 1910, director D.W. Griffith was sent by the Biograph Company to the west coast with his acting troupe, consisting of actors
Blanche Sweet, Lillian Gish, Mary Pickford, Lionel Barrymore, and others. They started filming on a vacant lot near Georgia Street
in downtown Los Angeles. While there, the company decided to explore new territories, traveling several miles north to Hollywood,
a little village that was friendly and enjoyed the movie company filming there. Griffith then filmed the first movie ever shot
in Hollywood, In Old California, a Biograph melodrama about California in the 1800s, while it belonged to Mexico. Biograph stayed
there for months and made several films before returning to New York.
During the Edison era of the the early 1900s, many Jewish immigrants had found employment in the U.S. film industry. Under the Edison Trust,
they were able to make their mark in a brand-new business: the exhibition of films in storefront theaters called nickelodeons.
Within a few years, ambitious men like Samuel Goldwyn, Carl Laemmle, Adolph Zukor, Louis B. Mayer, and the Warner Brothers
(Harry, Albert, Samuel, and Jack) had switched to the production side of the business. After hearing about Biograph's success
in Hollywood, in 1913 many such would-be movie-makers headed west to avoid the fees imposed by Edison. Soon they were the heads
of a new kind of enterprise: the movie studio.
By establishing a new system of production, distribution, and exhibition which was independent of The Edison Trust in New York,
these studios opened up new horizons for cinema in the United States. The Hollywood oligopoly replaced the Edison monopoly.
Within this new system, a pecking order was soon established which left little room for any newcomers. At the top were the
five major studios, MGM, Paramount Pictures, RKO, Warner Bros., and Twentieth Century Fox. Beneath them were Universal Studios
and Columbia Pictures. Finally there was "Poverty Row," a catch all term used to encompass any other smaller studio that managed
to fight their way up into the increasingly exclusive movie business. It is worth noting that though the small studios that made
up Poverty Row could be characterized as existing "independently" of any major studio, they utilized the same kind of vertically
and horizontally integrated systems of business as the larger players in the game. Though the eventual breakup of the studio system
and its restrictive chain-theater distribution network would leave independent movie houses eager for the kind of populist,
seat-filling product of the Poverty Row studios, that same paradigm shift would also lead to the decline and ultimate disappearance
of "Poverty Row" as a Hollywood phenomenon. While the kinds of films produced by Poverty Row studios only grew in popularity,
they would eventually become increasingly available both from major production companies and from independent producers who
no longer needed to rely on a studio's ability to package and release their work.
The following table illustrates the the categories commonly used to characterize the Hollywood system.
United Artists and the resistance to the studio system:
The studio system quickly became so powerful that some filmmakers once again sought independence as a result. On February 5, 1919
four of the leading figures in American silent cinema (Mary Pickford, Charles Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, and D. W. Griffith) formed
United Artists, the first independent studio in America. Each held a 20% stake, with the remaining 20% held by lawyer William Gibbs McAdoo.
The idea for the venture originated with Fairbanks, Chaplin, Pickford, and cowboy star William S. Hart a year earlier as they were traveling
around the U.S. selling Liberty bonds to help the World War I effort. Already veterans of Hollywood, the four film stars began to talk
of forming their own company to better control their own work as well as their futures. They were spurred on by the actions of established
Hollywood producers and distributors, who were making moves to tighten their control over their stars' salaries and creative license.
With the addition of Griffith, planning began, but Hart bowed out before things had formalized. When he heard about their scheme,
Richard A. Rowland, head of Metro Pictures, is said to have observed, "The inmates are taking over the asylum."
The four partners, with advice from McAdoo (son-in-law and former Treasury Secretary of then-President Woodrow Wilson), formed their
distribution company, with Hiram Abrams as its first managing director. The original terms called for Pickford, Fairbanks, Griffith
and Chaplin to independently produce five pictures each year, but by the time the company got under way in 1920-1921, feature films
were becoming more expensive and more polished, and running times had settled at around ninety minutes (or eight reels).
It was believed that no one, no matter how popular, could produce and star in five quality feature films a year. By 1924,
Griffith had dropped out and the company was facing a crisis: either bring in others to help support a costly distribution system
or concede defeat. The veteran producer Joseph Schenck was hired as president. Not only had he been producing pictures for a decade,
but he brought along commitments for films starring his wife, Norma Talmadge, his sister-in-law, Constance Talmadge, and
his brother-in-law, Buster Keaton. Contracts were signed with a letter of independent producers, especially Samuel Goldwyn,
Alexander Korda and Howard Hughes. Schenck also formed a separate partnership with Pickford and Chaplin to buy and build theaters
under the United Artists name.
Still, even with a broadening of the company, UA struggled. The coming of sound ended the careers of Pickford and Fairbanks.
Chaplin, rich enough to do what he pleased, worked only occasionally. Schenck resigned in 1933 to organize a new company with
Darryl F. Zanuck, Twentieth Century Pictures, which soon provided four pictures a year to UA's schedule. He was replaced as
president by sales manager Al Lichtman who himself resigned after only a few months. Pickford produced a few films, and at
various times Goldwyn, Korda, Walt Disney, Walter Wanger, and David O. Selznick were made "producing partners"
(i.e., sharing in the profits), but ownership still rested with the founders. As the years passed and the dynamics
of the business changed, these "producing partners" drifted away. Goldwyn and Disney left for RKO, Wanger for Universal
Pictures, and Selznick for retirement. By the late 1940s, United Artists had virtually ceased to exist as either a producer or distributor.
The Society of Independent Motion Picture Producers:
In 1941, Mary Pickford, Charlie Chaplin, Walt Disney, Orson Welles, Samuel Goldwyn, David O. Selznick, Alexander Korda, and Walter
Wanger—many of the same people who were members of United Artists—founded the Society of Independent Motion Picture Producers.
Later members included William Cagney, Sol Lesser, and Hal Roach. The Society aimed to preserve the rights of independent producers
in an industry overwhelmingly controlled by the studio system. SIMPP fought to end monopolistic practices by the five major
Hollywood studios which controlled the production, distribution, and exhibition of films.
In 1942, the SIMPP filed an antitrust suit against Paramount's United Detroit Theatres. The complaint accused Paramount of
conspiracy to control first-run and subsequent-run theaters in Detroit. It was the first antitrust suit brought by producers
against exhibitors alleging monopoly and restraint of trade.
In 1948, the United States Supreme Court Paramount Decision ordered the Hollywood movie studios to sell their theater chains and
to eliminate certain anti-competitive practices. This effectively brought an end to the studio system of Hollywood's Golden Age.
By 1958, many of the reasons for creating the SIMPP had been corrected and SIMPP closed its offices.
Low Budget films:
The efforts of the SIMPP and the advent of inexpensive portable cameras during World War II effectively made it possible for any
person in America with an interest in making films to write, produce, and direct one without the aide of any major film studio.
These circumstances soon resulted in a number of critically acclaimed and highly influential works, including Maya Deren's Meshes
of the Afternoon in 1943, Kenneth Anger's Fireworks in 1947, and Raymond Abrashkin's Little Fugitive in 1953. Filmmakers such
as Ken Jacobs with little or no formal training began to experiment with new ways of making and shooting films.
Little Fugitive became the first independent film to be nominated for Best Picture at the American Academy Awards.
It also received Silver Lion at Venice. Both Abrashkin and Anger's films won acclaim overseas from the burgeoning French New Wave,
with Fireworks inspiring praise and an invitation to study under him in Europe from Jean Cocteau, and François
Truffaut citing Little Fugitive as an essential inspiration to his seminal work, The 400 Blows. As the 1950s progressed,
the new low-budget paradigm of filmmaking gained increased recognition internationally, with films such Satyajit Ray's
critically acclaimed Apu Trilogy (1955-1959).
Unlike the films of the collapsing studio system, these new low-budget films could afford to take risks and explore new
artistic territory outside of the classical Hollywood narrative. Maya Deren was soon joined in New York by a crowd of
like minded avant-garde filmmakers who were interested in creating films as works of art rather than entertainment.
Based upon a common belief that the "official cinema" was "running out of breath" and had become "morally corrupt,
aesthetically obsolete, thematically superficial, and temperamentally boring," this new crop of independents
formed The Film-Makers' Cooperative, an artist-run, non-profit organization which they would use to distribute their
films through a centralized archive. Founded in 1962 by Jonas Mekas, Stan Brakhage, Shirley Clarke, Gregory Markopoulos,
and others, the Cooperative provided an important outlet for many of cinema's creative luminaries in the 1960s,
including Jack Smith and Andy Warhol. When he returned to America, Ken Anger would debut many of his most important
works there. Mekas and Brakhage would go on to found the Anthology Film Archives in 1970, which would likewise prove
essential to the development and preservation of independent films, even to this day.
The exploitation boom and the MPAA rating system:
Not all low budget films existed as non-commercial art ventures. The success of films like Little Fugitive, which had been made with
low (or sometimes non-existent) budgets encouraged a huge boom in popularity for non-studio films. Low budget film making promised
exponentially greater returns (in terms of percentages) if the film could have a successful run in the theaters. During this time,
independent producer/director Roger Corman began a sweeping body of work that would become legendary for its frugality and grueling
shooting schedule. Until his so-called "retirement" as a director in 1971 (he continued to produce films even after this date)
he would produce up to seven movies a year, matching and often exceeding the five-per-year schedule that the executives at United
Artists had once thought impossible.
Like those of the avante-garde, the films of Roger Corman took advantage of the fact that unlike the studio system, independent
films had never been bound by its self-imposed production code. Corman's example (and that of others like him) would help start
a boom in independent B-movies in the 1960s, the principle aim of which was to bring in the youth market which the major studios
had lost touch with. By promising sex, wanton violence, drug use, and nudity, these films hoped to draw audiences to independent
theaters by offering to show them what the major studios could not. Horror and science fiction films experienced a period of
tremendous growth during this time. As these tiny producers, theaters, and distributors continued to attempt to undercut one another,
the B-grade shlock film soon fell to the level of the Z movie, a niche category of films with production values so low that they
became a spectacle in their own right. The cult audiences these pictures attracted soon made them ideal candidates for midnight
movie screenings revolving around audience participation and cosplay.
In 1968, a young filmmaker named George Romero shocked audiences with Night of the Living Dead, a new kind of intense and unforgiving
independent horror film. This film was released just after the abandonment of the production code, but before the adoption of the
MPAA rating system. As such, it was the first and last film of its kind to enjoy a completely unrestricted screening, in which
young children were able to witness Romero's new brand of highly realistic gore. This film would help to set the climate of
independent horror for decades to come, as films like The Texas Chain Saw Massacre in 1974 and Cannibal Holocaust in 1980
continued to push the envelope.
With the production code abandoned and violent and disturbing films like Romero's gaining popularity, Hollywood opted to placate
the uneasy filmgoing public with the MPAA ratings system, which would place restrictions on ticket sales to young people. Unlike
the production code, this rating system posed a threat to independent films in that it would affect the number of tickets they
could sell and cut into the grindhouse cinema's share of the youth market. This change would further widen the divide between
commercial and non-commercial films.
New Hollywood and independent filmmaking
