US Indies

Fresh styles and new schools of cinematic expression have the power to wake us from any cliched drama-stupor as they defiantly re-define tomorrow’s mainstream. In all their diversity Andrea Arnold, Sean Baker, Julie Bertuccelli, Lizzie Borden, Charles Burnett, Terence Davies, Cheryl Dunye, Rolf de Heer, Ira Sachs, Patrick Wang, and many, many others share the work of waking us up.

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  • The Exiles

    Directed by Kent Mackenzie • Documentary • With Yvonne Williams, Homer Nish, Tom Reynolds
    • 1961 • 72 minutes

    The Exiles chronicles a night in the life of young Native Americans who fled reservation life to roam the Bunker Hill district of Los Angeles. Outside filmmaker Kent Mackenzie crafted ...

  • Bless Their Little Hearts

    Directed by Billy Woodberry • Drama • With Nate Hardman, Kaycee Moore • 1983 • 80 minutes

    Searching for steady work, Charlie (Nate Hardman) views his chronic unemployment as a kind of spiritual trial. But selling a few catfish can’t sustain a family of five while his wife, Andais (Kaycee Moore)...

  • The Connection

    Directed by Shirley Clarke • Drama • With William Redfield, Warren Finnerty, Roscoe Lee Browne • 1961 • 110 minutes

    Created by director Shirley Clarke at a time when female filmmakers were in short supply, The Connection shatters stereotypes to become one of the most vital American independent ...

  • Born in Flames

    Directed by Lizzie Borden • Drama • With Honey, Adele Bertaei, Jeanne Satterfield, Flo Kennedy, Ron Vawter, Eric Bogosian • 1983 • 80 minutes

    The movie that rocked the foundations of the early indie film world, this provocative, thrilling classic is a fantasy of female rebellion set in America t...

  • David Holzman's Diary

    Directed by Jim McBride • Drama • With Eileen Dietz, Kit Carson • 1967 • 73 minutes

    David Holzman's Diary is one of the most influential films of the 1960s, an "ingenious puzzle movie" (Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader) that charts the self-destruction of a media-saturated youth. As news from the Viet...

  • The Midnight Swim

    Directed by Sarah Adina Smith • Drama • With Lindsay Burdge, Jennifer Lafleur, Aleksa Palladino • 2014 • 84 minutes

    Spirit Lake is unusually deep. No diver has ever managed to find the bottom, though many have tried. When Dr. Amelia Brooks disappears during a deep-water dive, her three daughters...

  • The Immaculate Conception of Little Dizzle

    Directed by David Russo • Drama • With Marshall Allman, Jeanette Maus • 2009 • 97 minutes

    After losing his cubicle job as a data manager in Seattle, spiritually confused Dory feels like his life is going down the drain. He plummets from white collar to brown collar when he is forced to take a jo...

  • Keep the Lights On

    Directed by Ira Sachs • Drama • With Thure Lindhardt, Zachary Booth; Julianne Nicholson • 2012 • 106 minutes

    Keep the Lights On chronicles an emotionally and sexually charged journey of two men in New York City through love, friendship, and addiction. Documentary filmmaker Erik (Thure Lindhardt)...

  • Funny Ha Ha

    Directed by Andrew Buljalski • Drama • With Kate Dollenmayer, Christian Rudder, Mark Herlehy • 2002 • 83 minutes

    Marnie is 23, and drifts through "Funny Ha Ha," Andrew Bujalski's critically acclaimed debut feature, in search of romance and employment. The film's conversations sound improvised an...

  • Dance Party USA

    Directed by Aaron Katz • Drama • With Cole Pensinger, Anna Kavan, Brendan McFadden • 2006 • 66 minutes

    Apathetic seventeen-year-old Gus hangs around doing nothing with his buddy Bill most of the time. Gus likes to tell half-true stories about all the girls he’s slept with and all the drugs he’s ...

  • Ham on Rye

    Directed by Tyler Taormina • Drama • With Haley Bodell, Audrey Boos, Danny Tamberelli • 2020 • 85 minutes

    Ham on Rye, a coming-of-age comedy centered on the nervous excitement of youth and the strange horror of entering adulthood uses an expansive ensemble of over one hundred performers, includi...

  • You Go to My Head

    Directed by Dimitri de Clercq • Drama • With Delfine Bafort, Svetozar Cvetkovic, Arend Pinoy, Omar Sarnane, Laurence Tremolet • 2018 • 120 minutes

    This award-winning, critically lauded thriller begins in a desolate stretch of the Sahara, where a mysterious car accident leaves a young woman lost ...

  • Starlet

    Directed by Sean Baker • Drama • With Dree Hemingway, Besedka Johnson • 2012 • 103 minutes

    Starlet explores the unlikely friendship between 21 year-old aspiring actress Jane (Dree Hemingway) and elderly widow Sadie (Besedka Johnson) after their worlds collide in California’s San Fernando Valley....

  • Ape

    Directed by Joel Potrykus • Drama • With Joshua Burge, Gary Bosek, Daniel Falicki • 2013 • 86 minutes

    Trevor Newandyke is a struggling comedian and a pyromaniac. Not only does he bomb on stage, but he bombs in everyday life. He's fed up with threats from the cable company, Slurpee price hikes an...

  • Gabi on the Roof in July

    Directed by Lawrence Michael Levine • Drama • With Sophia Takal, Lawrence Michael Levine, Brooke Bloom, Louis Cancelmi, Kate Lyn Sheil, Amy Seimetz, Lena Dunham • 2017 • 101 minutes

    A portrait of young New York and the misguided hopefuls who can't afford to live there but do anyway, Gabi on the ...

  • Francine

    Directed by Brian M. Cassidy and Melanie Shatzky • Drama • With Melissa Leo • 2012 • 74 minutes

    After years of incarceration, a quiet, lonely woman, Francine (Academy Award® winner Melissa Leo), is released to start a new life in a small, rural town. But despite opportunities for warmth and conn...

  • Redlegs

    Directed by Brandon Harris • Drama • With Andrew Katz, Evan Louison, Nathan Ramos • 2012 • 67 minutes

    A comedic drama set amongst grieving twenty-something man-boys in the industrial Midwest whose black friend was recently murdered in a historically troubled part of Cincinnati, Ohio.

  • Shit Year

    Directed by Cam Archer • Drama • With Ellen Barkin, Luke Grimes, Bob Einstein • 2011 • 95 minutes

    A renowned actress, Ellen Barkin, abandons her successful acting career for a secluded life in the hills where reality becomes inseparable from unhinged obsessions in a hallucinatory struggle to rec...

  • We Go Way Back

    Directed by Lynn Shelton • Drama • With Amber Hubert, Maggie Brown, Kate Bayley • 2006 • 79 minutes

    Lynn Shelton's debut feature draws on her past as a stage actress but WE GO WAY BACK is no autobiographical drama. Kate (Amber Hubert) is a struggling actress who has given up her happiness and he...

  • You Won't Miss Me

    Directed by Ry Russo Young • Drama • With Stella Schnabel, Greta Gerwig, Joe Swanberg • 2011 • 81 minutes

    A kaleidoscopic portrait of Shelly Brown, an urban misfit recently released from a psychiatric hospital. The film is an evocative picture of a contemporary rebel and gives pathos to the fren...

  • Happy Cleaners

    Directed by Julian Kim, Peter S. Lee • Drama • With Hynaghwa Lim, Charles Ryu, Yun Jeong, Yeena Sung • 2020 • 98 minutes

    When a new landlord comes around, Mr. and Mrs. Choi find their dry cleaning business, Happy Cleaners in Flushing, Queens, in jeopardy of closing after 17 years. While they mak...

  • Lake Los Angeles

    Directed by Mike Ott • Drama • With Corina Calderon, Roberto 'Sanz' Sanchez • 2016 • 85 minutes

    A middle-aged Cuban man and a ten-year-old Mexican girl bond over being away from home in the hopeless back-drop that is Lake Los Angeles.

  • The Retrieval

    Movie

    Directed by Cris Eska • Drama • With Keston John, Tishuan Scott, Ashton Sanders • 2016 • 92 minutes

    1864: as war ravages the nation, on the outskirts of the civil War, it is business as usual for slave-owners and traders. The Retrieval follows Will (Ashton Sanders), a fatherless thirteen-year-ol...

  • As Good As You

    Directed by Heather de Michele • Drama • With Laura Heisler, Anna Fitzwater, Raoul Bhaneja, Bryan Dechart, Annie Potts • 2017 • 85 minutes

    Jo (Laura Heisler) is having a bad year. She has major writer's block, a rather dire caffeine addiction and is deeply mourning the untimely death of her bea...