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Time for a new thing - NEW ART FILM (since 2018) - as "indie film" is mostly a low budget version of Hollywood now

Indie film has gotten kind of boring.  That revolution may be over (it succeeded well).  At present (and maybe always, since the 1980s) indie or independent film is an attempt to do what Hollywood is doing but at a low budget, and also it was an attempt (successful) to expand the type of stories that were being told, and to add greater diversity to the movies (also successful as of now).  And was also a path to break into Hollywood (maybe not everyone wants that.  hollywood is interesting, but also seems like a lot of work and money spent and dealing with a ton of problems to produce a limited range of products).  But, by and large, indie film was always a Hollywood facing project (there are a few exception).  What if the next wave of indie filmmakers looked in the other direction (but remain open to working with whoever wants to work w/ them - Hollywood, Netflix, Amazon, art galleries, small movie theaters, non-profits, ad agencies, ordinary people with interesting stories, community centers, blogs - whatever sources of collaborators) AND are able to look at the art world and art, foreign, experimental films and makers for inspiration AND develop their own low budget (or not, based on what they can get) art/indie/experimental/DIY filmmaking and distribution (also marketing, sales, screening) practices as painters and poets and various other creators do with their work?  That might be cool.

What's next?  I think filmmaking as art, as artist lead creative endeavors - as practiced by Kevin Jerome Everson, Jonas Mekas, and several others - Jon Moritsugu, etc (see the links below) might be an exciting way to go.

Let's throw out all Hollywood ambitions and make exciting art work that look and sound like movies.  Let's invent new production methods, marketing methods, distribution methods.  Let's make movies for $0, also $1 million - whatever is possible for a given artist.

Let's also tackle all kinds of new subjects - from experimental cinema inspired subjects, to personal subjects, to traditional Hollywood type stories (but maybe make them in different ways).

Let's cast movies using all kinds of people Hollywood or the indie film world rarely puts in their movies.

Let's open filmmaking up - creatively, business wise, and in all other ways - as wide as painting, poetry, literature.  As filmmaking is easy to practice now due to the success of the digital revolution, the internet, and the success of indie or independent film.

Time to go beyond.

Here are some film artists doing interesting work (they fall all over the map - from experimental film to art film to indie film to indie/Hollywood).   Good starting points for thinking about what kind of movies can be made as New Art Films (since 2018).


Amir Motlagh

Jon Moritsugu

Rick Schmidt

Kevin Jerome Everson

Ingrid Veninger

Hong Sang-soo

Jonas Mekas

Leslie Thornton

Spike Lee

Lav Diaz

Apichatpong Weerasethakul

Jim Jarmusch

Hal Hartley

James Fotopoulos

- Sujewa

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