INDEPENDENT CINEMA 

What exactly is “independent cinema”? In the past thirty years, you have probably seen or read quite a bit about it, but it is not always clear what exactly it refers to. Interestingly, “independent cinema” has existed since the beginning of film industry and is, in part, responsible for bringing about the studio system, which modern indies are intent to remain separate from. 

The first independent filmmakers were those individuals and companies that refused to join the Motion Picture Patents Company, otherwise known as the ‘Edison Trust’. Thomas Edison held the majority of the patents pertaining to motion pictures and in 1908, formed the MPPC with the leading film companies of the day including Edison, Biograph, Vitagraph, Essanay, Selig, Lubin, Kalem, American Star and American Pathé. Those filmmakers who functioned outside the Edison Trust, were considered “independents” and many of these companies fled to Hollywood to escape the tentacle of Edison’s East Coast patent enforcers and to take advantage of a climate more conducive to year-round outdoor filmmaking. 

These cinematic rogues, liberated by distance and Supreme Court decisions nullifying patents held by MPPC, set up the groundwork for the so-called studio system that dominated Hollywood for decades and still holds a significant grip on the production and distribution of motion pictures today. In the Golden Age of Hollywood, these constituted eight major studios. Five of these studios were fully integrated operations controlling every aspect of filmmaking and exhibition, from holding performer contracts right through to owning the theatre chains that screened the work they produced. These were 20^th Century Fox, Loew’s (MGM), Paramount, RKO and Warner Brothers. Universal Pictures and Columbia Pictures had similar scale but few theatres. United Artists was a studio formed later by D.W. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks as a response to the controlling contracts imposed on performers by the other major studios. 

From the 1920’s to the 1950’s, the independent film companies that attempted to operate outside the studio system were considered part of “Poverty Row.” As the name implied, these operators generally produced films of lower quality and didn’t last long. However, in the mid-50s, one B-grade independent film producer emerged who would have a profound effect on independent cinema and the film industry as a whole. Filmmaker Roger Corman created an entire sub-genre of independent filmmaking, producing hundreds of scrappy pulp fiction features that were profitable due to their combination of low budgets and racy themes. Corman’s popular outsider approach attracted some of the more talented members of the emerging counter-culture of the late 1950s and 1960s to his operation. As a result, many of the biggest names in modern Hollywood found their start with Roger Corman as writers, directors and performers. Luminaries such as Martin Scorcese, Ron Howard, Jack Nicholson and Francis Ford Coppola all launched their careers with Roger Corman’s independent company.  

It is an interesting twist, if you will. Independent cinema exists, as it always has, to represent filmmaking outside of the mainstream system of film production. Yet neither independent cinema nor the Hollywood system would exist without the other. 

Many great cocktails are named after Hollywood stars. For today, I’ve chose the Mary Pickford cocktail. 

• 2 ounces light rum
• 2 ounces pineapple juice
• 1 teaspoon grenadine
• 1 teaspoon maraschino cherry juice

Shake with ice in a cocktail shaker and strain.