non-independent independent

Film This excellent interview with Amber Benson is filled with nuggets. Like:
"I know exactly what you're saying, and its already happened...there is no independent cinema anymore. It ceased to exist a number of years ago when every independent distributor was picked up by a major league studio, or they went out of business. I mean, there really is no independent cinema any longer. There are very few people that are working outside the mainstream, and when they do, you don't see their films because they play at one art house theater in LA or New York."
Very true and something which is becoming increasingly obvious. People are talking about the 'independent spirit' as a way of wrestling with the fact that the quirky/art house type of film making has been co-opted by the studios as just another way of making and marketing films. The filmmakers have the best of intentions of course and there have been many, many loveable films made under these circumstances but I simply can't imagine the indie greats of the past like Clerks, Slacker and The Return of the Sacarcas Seven even getting distribution now.

The interview is worth reading because Benson is a tirelessly funny, self depricating figure who seems to know an awful lot more about the business than some might imagine. Spot the moments when she probably falls out with the Lohans and the Gyllenhals...

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