With the increasing popularity of Indiewood, independent filmmakers are seeking alternative paths to their audiences.
BY NICOLE BERNARDI-REIS
Movie magic means just as much to the people in the industry as it does to ticket buying audience members, particularly within the realm of American independent filmmaking. The last five years has unraveled a story of epic proportions–one featuring the emergence of the great equalizer, technology, and an even greater segmentation in the birth of Indiewood. All of the sudden there were a lot more filmmakers working outside of the Hollywood system and an entirely new system at work. The result: Less trained filmmakers trying to make commercially viable independent films. A flood of less polished product competing with well-financed character driven, "small films" for the holy grail, access to the top tier film festivals.
"When Indiewood came around, it started selling out independent film," says Jim Boyle, founder and director of Nodance, a annual festival held in Park City, Utah dedicated to first time filmmakers and digital films. "As it progressed, Indiewood had to open up to a wider audience creating watered down product for general distribution. It was more palatable for audiences versus’ the personal film we were seeing."
For the mainstream, that actually meant a return to some of the character-driven films that made up moviegoing far before the age of the action picture.
"What’s called independent films now would be made by studios in the 80s," notes Ed Halter, director of the New York Underground Film Festival (NYUFF) and a film critic. "Now they make them but release them under their independent arm. If you go to the indieplex, half of what you see could have been produced by studios in the 80s."
But for the independent world, that’s meant a recontextualizing of what independent really means–and where you need to go to see it.
"Years ago there was a huge excitement around narrative low budget features," says Halter. "But as it’s gone up in budget, the lower budget stuff that is being made hasn’t filled the gaps. If it is being made at all it’s so weird, it might as well be called experimental or it’s not that good."
As the top tier festivals have become increasingly closed to the rank and file indie filmmakers–though not completely exclusive as proven by the presence of Chicago-made Design at this year’s Sundance–that proves the film festival business has boomed. Fests geared toward first time filmmakers, such as Nodance, are popping up everywhere and involving major names such as Martin Scorsese and Robert DeNiro. Niche festivals currently number in the thousands. And interestingly, the country’s underground film fests–including the Chicago Underground Film Fest (CUFF)–have taken up some of the slack.
"The underground has been changing," says Amy Beste, programmer for the Chicago Underground Film Festival. "CUFF grew out of this specific aesthetic, the psychotronic aesthetic. We expanded our vision out of necessity. As the years passed we realized that in order to be underground, you have to represent all facets of the underground.
"It’s a cultural fest in addition to film festival," she adds. "Sometimes work doesn’t come out looking like underground work. We use a cultural definition in addition to an aesthetic one."
That’s why CUFF’s programming will feature work that can also be found in more conventional venues, such as Katya Benkowsky’s look at female boxers, Shadowboxers (which now has a cable deal) and punk rock queen Penelope Spheris’ slick take on Ozzfest, We Sold Our Souls for Rock and Roll.
"Some of the features travel in more mainstream festivals," says Beste. "We’ve been watching out for that and are trying to represent people who don’t get represented at other festivals."
For Jim Boyle, Nodance was also created out of necessity.
"The other Park City fests weren’t paying attention to digital; we screen everything on DVD."
Aesthetically we’re more dark and edgy," he says. "We’re more on the periphery. Things you’re not going to find at Sundance. We’re geared toward the stranger stuff."
And Boyle has seen a marked return to this sort of content in recent times.
"In the last year we’ve seen a departure from lighthearted romantic comedy," he says. "Now it’s darker." He’s also seen an increase in digital video; approximately 85 percent of submissions are now on DVD.
Boyle sees Nodance as fulfilling a very specific need in Park City, that is educating first time filmmakers to the business that is independent film by exposing them to Sundance and the people that attend. For example, this year’s Nodance festival included a panel with Stolen Summer’s Pete Jones. "Hopefully the first time filmmakers coming through Nodance can learn something from Pete Jones, a first time filmmaker dealing with Miramax. And hopefully that will result in better films being made.
"The value of Nodance to filmmakers, depends on what they’re doing," Boyle adds. "Some end up here. Some start here." In fact, Porn Star: The Legend of Ron Jeremy got theatrical distribution after a successful run at the fest.
Ed Halter and the folks at the New York Underground Film Fest (NYUFF) also recognize the increasing role their fest is playing in the development of independent careers, particularly in the experimental realm. As an established part of the NYC film scene, NYUFF is able to hook filmmakers into the cinematheque and museum network. But even as the fest "moves away from narrative," it does have something to offer more straightforward storytellers.
"Since we’re in New York, a lot of industry people attend the fest," he says. "People go and we don’t know they’re there. Last year, Jeanne Tripplehorn saw something she liked and called her friend Ben Stiller. The filmmakers are now making videos for the Beastie Boys."
Celebrity sightings aside, fests of this ilk also help create a cross country buzz for filmmakers by passing work they like on to each other. The results can be career defining, a position that Chicago filmmaker Jim Fotopoulos finds himself in right now. In his 20’s, the prolific Fotopoulos is about to receive the first retrospective of his work–nearly 30 shorts and four features–at the Anthology Film Archives in New York. The event is being held in conjunction with NYUFF, CUFF and Facets Multimedia, which now handles the young filmmaker’s distribution.
Ironically, Fotopoulos doesn’t spend too much time thinking about festivals.
"I made my first feature in 1997," he says. "It was rejected everywhere. Then I did a second and it got into NYUFF. And now Facets handles the distribution of my work.
"You make the work for anybody," he adds. "And then you take it to where people accept it. The underground fests were the ones to support it. It spawned from there to non-underground. A lot of the avant guarde don’t like what I do. I hybrid narrative and avant guard. It’s sort of generic attachment to film–using actors in plastic way rather than dramatic way."
So, then what does Fotopolous consider himself? An independent filmmaker?
"The whole indie film thing I don’t understand what that is," he admits. "I’ve been totally detached."
Web sites for film festivals referenced in this article:
New York Underground Film Festival: http://www.nyuff.com/
Chicago Underground Film Festival: http://www.cuff.org/
Nodance: http://www.nodance.com/index2.html
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