ABSTRACT

United States independent cinema is often understood in popular and scholarly discourses as maintaining an oppositional relationship to the larger 'Hollywood mainstream' represented by the major film studios. With industrial independence problematised, many writers attempting to define US independent cinema endeavour to establish some set of criteria by which we might identify independent films. Neoliberalism is a term which has gained considerable currency in scholarly discourse over the past decade or so. Bolstered by new sources of financing, particularly from government grants and public television, production in the sector increased, as did the relative box-office success of the films. While individualism may at face value seem to be a noble sentiment, it has a long history as a crucial element in the development of capitalism and, especially, neoliberalism. In our contemporary moment, where an imperial capitalism stewarded by the United States dominates much.