Declare Independence

How Big IS Indie Film?

Happy Friday Peaceniks! Let’s all go to the movies!

Think of your favorite movies from the last 50 years. Call back to the first time you saw Silence of The Lambs, Silver Linings Playbook, Moonlight, Little Miss Sunshine, Se7en, Lost In Translation, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, or Juno. Independent film has generated some of the most important films and artists of the last century.

And independent film is in a deep state of crisis. Where there was once a vibrant market for these films at the end of the last century and through the height of the streaming wars, the acquisition/commission market for indie and documentary films has all but dried up as content platforms and Media companies have faced their own existential cataclysm.

As the bottom line became the new bottom line for content companies, their focus has been refocused on far more safe “mainstream” fare, on films that touch “four quadrants,” or fit well inside an advertising based environment, and away from movies that are se…