Even The New York Times Is Singing The DIY Chorus
From the article, by Manohla Dargis:
“It is time to blow the whole thing up.” In September 1960, when those words were lobbed at the world by a New York-centric, off-Hollywood circle of malcontents called the New American Cinema Group, there was no mistaking their radical urgency. Given the cold war times — one of the first large ban-the-bomb rallies had been held in Madison Square Garden some months earlier — this call to annihilation might have seemed tasteless. But for this group, whose numbers included the film critic, later filmmaker Jonas Mekas and the not-yet-director Peter Bogdanovich, the time for a free American cinema, one rooted in personal vision and liberated from censorship and the distribution and exhibition strangleholds, was now.
We can see that independent film has been a rallying cry since the 1960s. Now, in 2010, the tools and networks have converged to truly create the shakeup of the industry needed to put the world of film back in the hands of the visionaries who sweat over each creation. The interesting possibilities here are that only truly creative films will make the grade in this audience driven environment.
Leaving us are the days when studios can shove meaningless dreck down out throats at the theater. Sure, there will always be that demographic, but now other films will be able to see the light of day. Even better, viewers will drive what they want to watch. On one hand, in this day and age anyone can be an amateur filmmaker – the tools are out there and low cost – but not all of these creative visions will be able to grab an audience, or better, keep it.
With more and more mainstream press turning the spotlight on DIY film marketing and sales and indie filmmakers, the time is certainly now to follow that dream and that creative vision. The speed at which the film world is changing is dazzling, and filmmakers should be grabbing on with both hands.
