I just got a link
http://www.empireonline.co.uk/features/50greatestindependent/50-41.asp
from my good friend Eripsa. This link lists the top 50 or so “Independent Films”. This term has been in dispute ever since the mid 90’s when Mirimax made a name for themselves by distributing these films that were not seen as being part of the studio system: MGM, Universal, etc. Soon the Independent Film Channel followed and later another Sundance. They were seen as a place to showcase the independet sprit of filmmaking and all that. However, along the way as is to be expected and in a perfectly sensibly fashion following the success of Mirimax’s indie hook, a whole new crops of autuers appeared and the independent label perhaps got a little blown out of proportion. It is my firm belief that “gay cowboys eating pudding” is not inhernently indie. I do not prescribe to this ideal about the “sprit of independent cinema”. Today I think, more so than not, what people might think of as independent cinemas just isn’t. For my two cents a film is truly independent if it is produced and financed outside of the Studios (i.e. the big Corporation with money) entirely. It is the sort of film like Kevin Smith’s Clerks or David Lynch’s Eraserhead where they had difficulties getting the money and where the likelyhood of the film getting made, let alone distributed and released to the public, was not at all certain. We’ll that’s my new rant have at it! I have to go finish my own independent film now.