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It was the fourth DCU panel of the 2016 series. You can find recaps of this year’s previous DCU panels here, here and here. Four writer/directors from some of this year’s most lauded films—The Diary of a Teenage Girl, It Follows, Songs My Brothers Taught Me and Krisha—came together to discuss what it means to make an independent film in this industry. Or as Film Independent President Josh Welsh, who moderated the conversation, said, “How do you fully utilize the resources that you have in the most creative way possible?...

But who is Chick Strand, and why is now the time to revisit her work? According to Robin Blaetz, Professor of Film Studies at Mount Holyoke College and author of the anthology Women’s Experimental Cinema: Critical Frameworks (Duke University Press, 2007), Strand played a key role in fostering a community of experimental filmmaking in 1960s California. She co-founded the journal Canyon CinemaNews, which grew into Canyon Cinema, a non-profit film distributor that remains one of the only sources for prints of avant-garde and experimental film in America....

Still Alice When: December 5 Where: Theaters Directors: Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland Starring: Julianne Moore, Alec Baldwin, Kristen Stewart Why We’re Excited: Since premiering at the Toronto Film Festival a few months ago, Oscar buzz has brewed around Julianne Moore’s performance as a linguistics professor who is diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s. The emotionally charged drama from past Film Independent Spirit Award winners Glatzer and Westmoreland (they won the John Cassavetes Award in 2007 for Quinceanera) focuses on how her husband and children deal with the diagnosis....

Naturally, any 10 films chosen to represent the scope of stories and experiences found in modern day Los Angeles will necessarily be as wide-ranging as the city itself. And while it would be impossible to capture every single facet of the City of Angeles with just 10 titles, you could do a lot worse than this year’s LA Muse. For the fourth year, we left the air-conditioned confines of Film Independent HQ far behind, venturing out to meet this year’s LA Muse filmmakers on location to learn the stories behind this year’s films—learning what makes these locations so special and finding out what these creators (and subjects) are looking forward to at this year’s LA Film Festival....

For this week’s Film Independent Presents streaming video playlist and in honor of Asian and Pacific Islander American Heritage month, we’re excited to highlight eight wonderful films by Asian American filmmakers Enjoy! We’re kicking off with Columbus—a three-time Film Independent Spirit Award nominee for Best Cinematography, Best First Feature, and Best First Screenplay. Celebrated video essayist Koganada’s extremely accomplished feature debut stars Haley Lu Richardson and John Cho as two young people stuck in Columbus, IN for different reasons....

Over the past year there’s been a bumper crop of LGBTQIA+ films spanning the entire breadth of the cinematic medium–from unsettling dramas like Tár and The Whale, to uproarious rom-coms Fire Island and Bros, to incisive and arresting documentaries like Nelly & Nadine and Jimmy in Saigon (the latter a previous Film Independent Fiscal Spotlight subject.) Happily, this year doesn’t seem to be letting its foot off the gas one gay inch, with a robust pipeline of diverse queer content in imminent release and under development under the umbrella of Film Independent’s Artist Development....

The film–screening for free this Tuesday, December 12 as part of Film Independent Presents!–tackles the macro issues of racism, colorism and prejudice within Sudan while concentrating on the growing friendship between two women in Khartoum. The first Mona (Eiman Yousef) is a privileged Sudanese housewife of Arab descent. The other, Julia (Siran Riak), is a poor woman originally from South Sudan and of African descent who ends up being her maid....

2021 was proving to be a year of very mixed emotions. The pandemic was still rearing its ugly head and the chance of getting to shoot anything anytime soon seemed slim. But then my wife and I found out that we were expecting twin girls… and that I had been selected for the Film Independent Screenwriting Lab. Double yay! Amazing things still happen, people. Like most things that year, everything was happening remotely....

And as marijuana laws have shifted over the years—from outright prohibition, to limited medicinal usage, to tightly regulated recreational use within certain states—marijuana themed movies have likewise evolved. Once upon a time, the only movies that even touched the subject of pot were hysterical propaganda pieces like Reefer Madness. Then, from the 1960s onward, weed became a popular (and hip) subject of broad comedy—in everything from Animal House to Annie Hall to Friday....

The film explores the aftermath of Indonesia’s mass killings of an estimated 1 to 3 million communists, suspected communists and Chinese people in 1965. Many of the leaders remain in power today and Killing follows some of the most brutal executioners as they make a bizarre film where they reenact the gruesome murders. Instead of opting for graphic imagery of the bloody genocide it documents, Oppenheimer’s work has an aesthetic integrity throughout, which elevates it in a way that is profoundly moving, self-reflexive and far more creative than I could have predicted....

As a composer, when being considered to score a film, TV show or videogame you’ll often be asked to create some sort of demonstration of your skills. Sometimes you have months to soak up the style of the film and the genres of music you think will be best for the project. Other times you first hear of a project when the production is well under way—and there’s a time crunch....

Costume designer Samantha Kuester (Any Day Now) came into the Film Independent office last week for the most recent edition of our “Know Your Crew” series, and she assigned everyone in attendance this unusual task. Understanding how much things really cost, she explained, is crucial to working effectively with a costume designer. “I like to bring up budget right away,” she said of her initial meetings with a project’s line producer....

Krisha, an astounding first feature made on a shoestring budget, won the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award for best narrative feature at this year’s SXSW Film Festival. It tells the story of a woman in her 60s who struggles with addiction and mental health issues, and who is trying to reconnect with her estranged relatives at a family reunion. Despite the fact that this little movie with no name actors was competing against films starring the likes of Jay Duplass, word quickly spread that Krisha was the must-see film of the festival....

Held once again inside its signature big white tent adjacent to the Santa Monica Pier, it was clear from the opening moments of the show that host Aubrey Plaza had few qualms about taking jabs at this year’s embattled and host-less Oscars ceremony. “Welcome to the Spirit Awards,” the Ingrid Goes West alum (and Spirit Award winner) began. “The network’s first choice to host was no one, but they were already booked for tomorrow....

And as the all-powerful shaper of the movie industry’s future, the question I ask myself most often is: how are my viewing habits contributing to the inevitable schism between Hollywood blockbusters and the independent film world? Now, this isn’t a question most normal people ask. Normal people don’t interrogate thoughts around their own viewing habits at all. But as movie geek and casual observer of industry trends, it’s become obvious—to me, at least—that what we currently think of as “film” is in the process of splintering off into two wildly diametric art forms with little relationship to one another....

HAPPY CHRISTMAS (2014) Written and Directed by: Joe Swanberg Starring: Anna Kendrick, Joe Swanberg, Melanie Lynskey, Lena Dunham Producers: Joe Swanberg, Alicia Van Couvering, Peter Gilbert Why We Love It: For Jude, Joe Swanberg’s real-life toddler son, who appears in the film as protagonists Kelly (Lyskey) and Jeff’s (Swanberg) child. Says Jen Chaney of The Washington Post: “Improvised family drama feels all too real. But what is often surprising in this entertaining and fluidly acted portrait of females in flux is the specific way things get messy....

Last year, Netflix Film Club launched as a YouTube channel offering behind-the-scenes videos, celebrity interviews and more, for cinephiles new and old. As the channel’s community grew, so did its ambition to highlight underrepresented voices. So we’re excited about a new partnership between Film Independent and the Netflix Film Club. Together, we were able to develop a program to fund short films from five promising independent Black filmmakers that are premiering on Netflix Film Club....

Eight years passed without Zeitlin’s follow-up. But the writer, director, composer and arts collective co-founder has been anything but inactive, stepping behind the scenes as an executive producer on projects including the features Burning Cane and Give Me Liberty—both of which were 2020 Film Independent Spirit Award nominees, with Liberty winning the John Cassavetes Award—and working hard on Wendy, his very Benh Zeitlin-y interpolation of the Peter Pan mythos, which premiered earlier this year at Sundance....

This February 27, as part of our Directors Close-Up series at The Landmark—West Los Angeles, filmmakers and film lovers will have the opportunity to hear more first-hand insights from Payne about his work and the making of his acclaimed film. Payne is one of the latest additions to the DCU line-up featuring the artists behind some of the year’s most innovative work, along with actor/writer and Spirit Award nominee Julie Delpy (Before Midnight); writer John August (Frankenweenie) and Spirit Award nominee Bob Nelson (Nebraska)....

With Forster at the helm—making his TV debut—and the script by Ben Watkins (Burn Notice), expectations have been high from the start. “The actors circle is very small and it got around that this is this year’s hottest pilot script,” Royo said. “Everyone wanted in.” Royo told us he was drawn to the project because the character he plays, Mayor Robert “Bobo” Boston, is such a great departure from Bubbles, the heroin addict-turned-informant he played with such finesse on The Wire....