Truly Independent Cinema

Where the films are often less like Ed Burns' and more like Ed Wood's

This is show business at its most elemental. The annual Independent Feature Film Market, which took place last month at a Manhattan multiplex, typically features some 200 feature-length movies (many not yet even finished) competing for investors, distributors, exposure, oxygen, life. With an atmosphere of equal parts hubris and desperation, it is a cross between a trade show, a film festival and a bazaar, and a far cry from what most people envision when they think of independent film: Matt Damon smoking cigars at a Miramax Oscar party. Since I had long been curious about the unsung breadth of no-budget filmmaking--the...

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