Indie Reframed

Women’s Filmmaking and Contemporary American Independent Cinema

Linda Badley, Claire Perkins, Michele Schreiber

• Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
• Year: 2017
• Edition: 0
• eBook ISBN:
  9781474403931
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Film & Video

With the consolidation of 'indie' culture in the 21st century, female filmmakers face an increasingly indifferent climate. Within this sector, women work across all aspects of writing, direction, production, editing and design, yet the dominant narrative continues to construe 'maverick' white male auteurs such as Quentin Tarantino or Wes Anderson as the face of indie discourse. Defying the formulaic myths of the mainstream 'chick flick' and the ideological and experimental radicalism of feminist counter-cinema alike, women's indie filmmaking is neither ironic, popular nor political enough to be readily absorbed into pre-existing categories. This ground-breaking collection, the first sustained examination of the work of female practitioners within American independent cinema, reclaims the 'difference' of female indie filmmaking. Through a variety of case studies of directors, writers and producers such as Ava DuVernay, Lena Dunham and Christine Vachon, contributors explore the innovation of a range of female practitioners by attending to the sensibilities, ideologies and industrial practices that distinguish their work – while embracing the 'in-between' space in which the narratives they represent and embody can be revealed.

Table of contents

• CONTENTS
• LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
• ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
• NOTES ON THE CONTRIBUTORS
• INTRODUCTION
• PART I PRODUCTION AND DISTRIBUTION CONTEXTS
• 1. WOMEN MAKE MOVIES: CHICKEN & EGG PICTURES, GAMECHANGER FILMS AND THE FUTURE OF FEMALE INDEPENDENT FILMMAKING
• 2. KILLER FEMINISM
• 3. ‘A WOMAN WITH AN ENDGAME’: MEGAN ELLISON, ANNAPURNA PICTURES AND AMERICAN INDEPENDENT FILM PRODUCTION
• 4. SUSAN SEIDELMAN’S CONTEMPORARY FILMS: THE FEMINIST ART OF SELF-REINVENTION IN A CHANGING TECHNOLOGICAL LANDSCAPE
• 5. ‘I’M ABSOLUTELY THE RIGHT PERSON FOR THIS JOB’: ALLISON ANDERS AND MARY HARRON ON LIFETIME TELEVISION
• PART II GENRES AND MODALITIES
• 6. GENDER, GENRE AND MORE GENERAL INDIE DIMENSIONS IN MEGAN GRIFFITHS’ THE OFF HOURS AND EDEN
• 7. DOWN TO THE BONE: NEO-NEOREALISM AND GENRE IN CONTEMPORARY WOMEN’S INDIES
• 8. MY EFFORTLESS BRILLIANCE: WOMEN’S MUMBLECORE
• 9. BLACK WOMEN, ROMANCE ANDTHE INDIEWOOD ROM COMS OF SANAA HAMRI
• PART III IDENTITIES
• 10. FROM DOCUMENTARY TO FICTIONAL REALISM: MIRA NAIR’S DOCUMENTARY ROOTS, FICTIONAL HOME AND PRODUCTION POLITICS
• 11. HAVING ITS CAKE AND EATING IT TOO: CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN 'INDIE’ CINEMA AND MY BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING REFRAMED
• 12. NOT JUST INDIE: A LOOK AT FILMS BY DEE REES, AVA DUVERNAY AND KASI LEMMONS
• 13. SEXUAL IN-BETWEENER/ INDUSTRY IN-BETWEENER: THE CAREER AND FILMS OF LISA CHOLODENKO
• 14. MIRANDA JULY AND THE NEW TWENTY-FIRST-CENTURY INDIE
• PART IV COLLABORATIONS
• 15. MUTUAL MUSES IN AMERICAN INDEPENDENT FILM: CATHERINE KEENER AND NICOLE HOLOFCENER, MICHELLE WILLIAMS AND KELLY REICHARDT
• 16. THE FEMINIST POLITICS OF COLLABORATION IN LENA DUNHAM’S TINY FURNITURE
• 17. THE DIRECTOR AS FACILITATOR: COLLABORATION, COOPERATION AND THE GENDER POLITICS OF THE SET
• 18. BEYOND THE SCREEN: ON CONTEMPORARY FEMINIST MEDIA RE-ARTICULATIONS
• INDEX