Crowdfunding, Independence, Authorship

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

11-23-2016

Abstract

This chapter traces the role of crowdfunding in shaping the ongoing evolution of independent film culture. As a number of critics have argued, the indie film market appeared to decline dramatically in the first decade of the twenty-first century. The perception was created that fewer opportunities for low-budget and independent filmmakers existed than in the past, establishing a crisis narrative that led to a proliferation of experiments in film financing, production, distribution, and exhibition. The chapter distinguishes between economic independence, films produced, distributed, and exhibited outside the major Hollywood studios and movie theaters and "indie" as a cultural phenomenon, defined informally by film industry professionals, media journalists, and audiences. The proposals by American indie auteurs serve to illustrate how concepts of authorship are informed by the rhetoric of independence that formed during the Sundance-Miramax era, while being updated, however, via the culture of social media.

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