Course description:
This course will first trace the roots of commercially-oriented, low-budget fiction films and then examine their contemporary status. We will explore the industrial, socio-cultural and formal-aesthetic characteristics of independently produced, distributed and/or exhibited narrative features. A wide range of films will be analyzed, ranging from genre films to art films to studio-based indies. In addition, we will address the validity and usefulness of the label of “independence” within the present media context.
A key emphasis throughout the course will be on the relationships between independents and Hollywood, and the ways in which definitions of independence have changed over time. Special attention will be paid to the business of independent film throughout the semester.
In the first half of the course, we will survey the history of independent films in the U.S. through the mid-1970s. During the second half of the semester, we will examine the rapidly changing independent landscape of the past three decades. Among the many issues to be discussed are the role of film festivals and film markets in making and marketing movies; the importance of new platforms such as VOD and the Internet for filmmakers; and the role that specialty divisions such as Fox Searchlight and Focus Films have played in contemporary Hollywood.
Please note: In general, this class will not discuss non-fiction, avant-garde and experimental cinema.
Objectives and outcomes: By the end of the course you should be able to…
Assess how and why certain types of independent films developed as they did at particular historical moments;
Understand the shifting relationship between independent films and Hollywood product;
Recognize the changing meaning of the term “independent” during the course of the 20th century;
Appreciate and critique the different ways that scholars research and write about film history.
SCHEDULE
Please note: Chapters and articles should be read for the *following* class meeting.
WEEK 1
Jan . 11 (M) Introductions
Book: Tzioumakis, Introduction
Screening: Baghead (2008, 84m)
Jan. 13 (W) Defining Independence
Book: Tzioumakis, Chapter 1 (pp. 19-30)
Packet: Cooper, “Studio History Revisited: The Case of the Universal Women”
Part I: 1910s-1945: Independent Film in the Studio Era
WEEK 2
Jan. 18 (M) Independents in the Age of Silent Cinema
Packet: Regester, “The African-American Press and Race Movies, 1909-1929”
Screening: The Blot (1921, 80m)
Jan. 20 (W) Independents in the Age of Silent Cinema, cont’d
Book: Tzioumakis, Chapter 1 (pp. 30-62)
WEEK 3
Jan. 25 (M) Independent Production in the Studio Era
Book: Tzioumakis, Chapter 2
Screening: Detour (1945, 67m)
Jan. 27 (W) Poverty Row in the ‘30s and ‘40s
Packet: Selections from Taves, “The B Film: Hollywood’s Other Half”
WEEK 4
Feb. 1 (M) Poverty Row, cont’d
Packet: Schaefer, “‘The Monster that Caters to Thrill-Hungry Youth’ – The Drug Film”
Screening: Reefer Madness (1936, 67m)
Feb. 3 (W) Classical Exploitation Films
Book: Tzioumakis, Chapter 3
WEEK 5
Feb. 8 (M) Classical Exploitation Films, cont’d
Packet: Wilinsky, “Reading for Maximum Ambiguity: A Consideration of the Art Film”
Screening: Meshes of the Afternoon (1943, 18m); Lost Boundaries (1949, 99m)
Part II: 1946-1974: The Transitional Era
Feb. 10 (W) The Rise of Art Cinema
Packet: Wilinsky, “‘Any Leisure That Looks Easy is Suspect’: Art House Audiences and the Search for Distinction”
WEEK 6
Feb. 15 (M) Art Cinema, cont’d
Book: Tzioumakis, Chapter 4
Screening: Bucket of Blood (1959, 66m)
Feb. 17 (W) Exploitation Films of the 1950s and ‘60s
*Hand out exam review sheet*
WEEK 7
Feb. 22 (M) Exploitation Films, cont’d; exam review session
Screening: Schlock! The Secret History of Movies (2001, 89m)
Feb. 24 (W) *Exam #1*
Book: Tzioumakis, Chapter 5 (pp. 169-177; 184-187)
Packet: Film-Maker’s Cooperative Statement
WEEK 8
March 1 (M) New American Cinema
Packet: Marguilies, “John Cassavetes – Amateur Director”
*Full semester mid-point: Last day to withdraw and receive a “W”*
Screening: Faces (1968, 130m)
March 3 (W) New American Cinema, cont’d
Book: Tzioumakis, Chapter 5 (pp. 177-184; 187-191)
Packet: Wyatt, “From Roadshowing to Saturation Release”
WEEK 9
March 8-10 ***Spring Break***
WEEK 10
March 15 (M) The “Hollywood Renaissance”
Packet: Heffernan, “Inner City Exhibition and the Genre Film”
Screening: Night of the Living Dead (1968, 96m); Start Billy Jack
March 17 (W) In-class screening: Continue Billy Jack (1971, 114m)
WEEK 11
March 22 (M) Exploitation, ‘70s-style
Book: Tzioumakis, Chapter 6
Screening: Female Trouble (1974, 92m)
March 24 (W) Exploitation, cont’d
Packet: Levy, “The New American Independent Cinema”
*Discuss final paper assignment*
Part III: 1975-Present: From Independents to Indiewood
WEEK 12
March 29 (M) Independents, 1975-present: An Overview
Packet: Carson, “John Sayles, Independent Filmmaker”; King, “Alternative Visions: Social, Political & Ideological Dimensions of Independent Cinema” (pp. 197-222)
Screening: Return of the Secaucus 7 (1980, 110m)
March 31 (W) Overview, cont’d
Packet: Levy, “The New African American Cinema”
*Proposals due at the start of class*
WEEK 13
April 5 (M) The New African American Cinema
Book: Tzioumakis, Chapter 7
Screening: Hollywood Shuffle (1987, 78m)
April 7 (W) Mini-Majors in the 1980s
Book: Tzioumakis, Chapter 8 & Epilogue
Packet: Rich, “New Queer Cinema”
Outside Screening: CHOOSE ONE – My Own Private Idaho (1991, 104m) or The Living End (1992, 92m)
WEEK 14
April 12 (M) The 1990s-Era Ultra Low-Budget Moment
Packet: Perren, “sex, lies and Marketing: Miramax and the Development of the Quality Indie Blockbuster”;
Lane, “Just Another Girl Outside the Neo-Indie”
Screening: Walking and Talking (1996, 86m)
April 14 (W) The Rise of the Studio-Based Indie
Packet: King, “Introduction: Indiewood in Contexts”
WEEK 15
April 19 (M) The Institutionalization of Indiewood
Packet: McDonald, “Miramax, Life is Beautiful, and the Indiewoodization of the Foreign-Language Film Market in the USA”
Screening: Life is Beautiful (1998, 116m)
April 21 (W) Indiewood, cont’d
Packet: Newman, “Indie Culture: In Pursuit of the Authentic Autonomous Alternative”
WEEK 16
April 26 (M) The Fall of Indiewood
Packet: Tryon, “Desktop Productions: Digital Distribution and Public Film Cultures”; selections from Filmmaker, indieWIRE
Screening: Four-Eyed Monsters (2006, 70m)
April 28 (W) New Millennium, New Directions
Recent articles to be posted on ULearn
Look at: www.foureyedmonsters.com; www.sitasingstheblues.com; http://trulyfreefilm.blogspot.com/;
http://jonreiss.com/blog/; http://workbookproject.com/
*Hand out exam review sheet*
*Final papers due at the start of class*
WEEK 17
May 3 (M) What’s Next?
May 5 (W) *Final exam from 12:30-2:30 p.m.*
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