Cinema and Culture : Independent Film in the United States, 1980-2001

Contemporary independent American and non-American films distributed in the United States have emerged as a distinct system of representation formulated in the expanse between principles of Hollywood popular film and alternative cinematic practices. Cinema&Culture considers independent film as an industry, a set of institutions, a discursive formation, and a specific series of texts. Investigating the consumption side of the spectrum (distribution, reception, textual analysis), attention is focused on narrative films released theatrically in the United States by nonstudio distributors between 1980 and 2001. The category « independent film is analyzed as the function of multiple, simultaneous, layered, and interacting discourses: representational, institutional, interpretive, and cultural/historical. Under exploration is the extent to which independent film as a distinct cultural formation is able to represent the stories, perspectives, and experiences of a pluralistic, multicultural society. « For years, we have needed a guide through the complex te

E. Deidre Pribram is an independent scholar and an independent filmmaker. Her credits include numerous journal articles and book chapters on film theory, gender theory, independent cinema, and popular film and television. She is also the editor of Female Spectators: Looking at Film and Television and the writer/director of the narrative feature The Family Business