Read more
In the early 1980s, serious American independent films including
Stranger Than Paradise,
Blood Simple, and
She's Gotta Have It attracted ever-widening audiences, culminating with Steven Soderbergh's award-winning
sex, lies, and videotape. This film, which won the Cannes Film Festival's top award and took more than $30 million at the box office in the United States alone, capped a remarkable decade for off-Hollywood filmmakers.
Outsider Features takes an in-depth look at 10 of the most successful independent feature films made during this decade, from John Sayles's seminal and groundbreaking
The Return of the Secaucus Seven to Michael Moore's wry and irreverent
Roger & Me, the most lucrative non-music documentary ever made.
Outsider Features offers accounts of the genesis of each film, complete synopses and critical analyses, and biographies of each filmmaker.
List of contents
Acknowledgments
Preface
Introduction: Intruders in the Enchanters' Domain
All Together Now: The Return of the Secaucus Seven (1980)
Koan-undrum: Chan Is Missing (1981)
Punk's Progress: Smithereens (1982)
Deadpan Alley: Stranger Than Paradise (1984)
Neon Nior: Blood Simple (1984)
Brooklyn Broach: She's Gotta Have It (1986)
Lust's Labors Lost: Working Girls (1986)
Oddities and Odysseys: The Thin Blue Line (1988)
Louisiana Story: sex, lies, and videotape (1989)
Rust Belt Requium: Roger & Me (1989)
Bibliography
About the author
RICHARD K. FERNCASE is Associate Professor of Film and Television at Chapman University in Southern California. He is an award-winning filmmaker and photographer and the author of two books on motion picture lighting.
