Indie Film is Dead, Long Live the Underground
Jim Dwyer reflects on Indiewood, Sundance and Digital Promises for latribe.com

Sundance 2001 announced its lineup. Some young, naïve hearts were broken, credit card debt was reflected upon, some parents got phone calls, plane tickets were purchased and perhaps, for the first time since its creation, Sundance is coming to terms with the fact that it's a showplace for the well connected and big money peeps.

Yes, there are a few real deserving (and talented) 'nobodies' thrown in for spice - but that's really about all. This year's press release from the mighty ski town states that independent films (films supposedly made outside the Hollywood machine and filled with new ideas, new talent or new perspectives) now contain big budgets, big stars and big special effects! Does anyone really believe this? Or more importantly - does anybody really care? Probably not. And Sundance will continue to be called the premiere film festival for American Independent Film - by Entertainment Tonight.

And you know what? That's ok.

Filmmakers, audiences and cinema itself are changing, and perhaps, shoring up the buzz factors and attendance records with 'known' stars directing sitcom celebrities and big special effects is the strategy that Sundance must adhere to in order to survive. After all at Sundance, film is business – everyone's always referring to this deal or that deal, what got bought, who by and for how much. Film must be able to make money to exist, right? (Although recent Sundance-feted alumni Girlfight and Chuck and Buck failed to - but this is because American film is trending away from the 'Indie" aesthetic and now, tellingly - so is Sundance.)

So where is the 'film as art' school of thought to be found? The people that make films not simply to make money but because they have to? Starving in some cold water flat perhaps? At Slamdance this year?

Naw - but you have to actually look for them.

It's telling that the underground film community has raced to embrace the digital revolution while a lot of 'major' film fests have fallen behind or issued statements about digital equaling low production value - a statement that consistently (and mistakenly) construes low budget and available light with 'no aesthetic.' Indie's failure to actually provide legit outlets for quality, independently financed, kick-ass digital films is making the underground cool again in ways that even the most jaded downtown NYC hipster would never have imagined.

Scenes are starting to happen again! Underground celebrities are popping up again; imagine celebrities that come complete with real personalities! (Remember reading about Edie? Dylan? Andy? Divine?) Savvy film lovers are actually in charge! (Look to the spot-on and carefully considered programming at underground galas like the New York and Chicago underground film festivals- NYUFF and CUFF respectively) Witness women filmmakers treated (and actually programmed) like humans - not rare tropical birds! Cool Internet companies are taking the initiative - distributing indie film and widening audiences like pioneering dotcom Insound. Multimedia festivals like No Dance and d-Vision have sprung up worldwide with a distinct slant toward the interesting, hi-tech and off-kilter, (Nodance , Dvision)

And better yet, digital video and the internet are bringing the underground to places like Nebraska and South Africa and the Moon. That's the real revolution. We are going to start hearing from voices that have never been given a chance to make a film or had an outlet like this before. The digital video technology available now gives every filmmaker the means to write, shoot, produce and distribute for micro-fractions of the catering budget of buzzbombs like Little Nicky. The underground has always fed the mainstream media with its incredible raw ingredients - the internet is bringing these influences to audiences unfiltered. Interesting times indeed.

The digital revolution and its marriage to the internet may annoy the film obsessives out there but it is coming. It's hopefully going to sweep aside a lot of the old gatekeepers. Or at least make everyone question why these people are the gatekeepers.

And that's scary if you just wanna party and ski.