U.S. 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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  • Dance Party USA (Aaron Katz)

    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 ...

  • Lake Los Angeles (Mike Ott)

    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.

  • 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...

  • Jem Cohen (two films)

    2 items

    Jem Cohen (born 1962) is an Afghan-born American filmmaker based in New York City. Cohen is especially known for his observational portraits of urban landscapes, blending of media formats and collaborations with musicians.

    Cohen’s feature-length films include Museum Hours, Counting, Chain, Be...

  • Woodpecker

    Directed by Alex Karpovsky • Drama • With Jon Hyrns, Wesley Yang • 2008 • 87 minutes

    This comedy follows Hyrns and his cohort, Wesley Yang, as they obsessively search the Arkansas bayou for proof that ivory-billed woodpecker is in fact not extinct.

  • Ice (Robert Kramer)

    Directed by Robert Kramer • Drama • With Robert Kramer, Leo Braudy, Tom Griffin, Paul McIsaac • 1969 • 128 minutes

    ICE is an innovative independent thriller, shot in New York City, which centers on a revolutionary group plotting to attack a fascistic political regime. Using a fictitious war with...

  • Hello I Must Be Going

    Directed by Todd Louiso • Drama • With Melanie Lynskey, Blythe Danner, Christopher Abbott • 2012 • 94 minutes

    HELLO I MUST BE GOING features acclaimed actress Melanie Lynskey (UP IN THE AIR, TWO AND A HALF MEN) in her breakout role as Amy, a recent divorcée who seeks refuge in the suburban Conne...

  • 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...

  • The Dish & the Spoon (Allison Bagnall, w/ Greta Gerwig)

    Directed by Alison Bagnall • Drama • With Greta Gerwig, Olly Alexander • 2011 • 92 minutes

    This quirky romantic comedy follows Rose (Greta Gerwig), whose life changes after discovering her husband’s affair. Devastated and reeling, she soon crosses paths with a marooned British teenager (Olly Ale...

  • Uncertain Terms (Nathan Silver)

    Directed by Nathan Silver • Documentary • With David Dahlbom, Adinah Dancyger • 2014 • 71 minutes

    Needing a sudden escape from the city, Robbie flees Brooklyn for the countryside to stay with his aunt who runs a home for pregnant teenagers. As the only man in the house, Robbie inadvertently beco...

  • River of Grass (Kelly Reichardt)

    Directed by Kelly Reichardt • Drama • With Lisa Donaldson, Larry Fessenden • 1995 • 81 minutes

    RIVER OF GRASS (1994), Kelly Reichardt’s darkly funny debut feature, brought the writer/director back to the setting of her adolescence, the suburban landscape of southern Florida, where she grew up wi...

  • Museum Hours (Jem Cohen)

    Directed by Jem Cohen • Drama • With Mary Margaret O’Hara, Robert “Bobby” Sommer, Ela Piplits • 2012 • 106 minutes

    When a Vienna museum guard befriends an enigmatic visitor, the grand Kunsthistorisches Art Museum becomes a mysterious crossroads which sparks explorations of their lives, the city,...

  • What Happened Was... (directed & w/ Tom Noonan)

    Directed by Tom Noonan • Drama • With Tom Noonan, Karen Sillas • 1993 • 91 minutes

    Winner of the Grand Jury Prize and the Screenwriting Award at the 1994 Sundance Film Festival, WHAT HAPPENED WAS... is Tom Noonan's directorial debut; a darkly humorous take on dating dread. Featuring powerhouse p...

  • Francine (w/ Melissa Leo)

    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...

  • 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 ...

  • Little Sister

    Directed by Zach Clark • Drama • With Addison Timlin, Ally Sheedy, Alex Karpovsky • 2016 • 91 minutes

    Young nun Colleen (Addison Timlin) is avoiding all contact from her family, until an email from her mother (Ally Sheedy) announces, Your brother is home. On returning to her childhood home in As...

  • 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...

  • The Heirloom

    Movie

    A desperate filmmaker is seized by inspiration when he and his girlfriend adopt a traumatized rescue dog. This sets off a riotous chain of new challenges on how to deal with this addition to the household. The couple each pursue their own deepheld individual questions surrounding trust, purpose a...

  • Micro Budget

    Directed by Morgan Evans • Drama • With Brandon Micheal Hall, Patrick Noth • 2024 • 88 minutes

    When Terry discovers he's about to be a father, he does what any other sane person would do. He moves himself and his nine-months-pregnant wife from Iowa to Los Angeles to shoot a low-budget indie movi...

  • 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...

  • Always Shine

    Directed by Sophia Takal • Drama • With Mackenzie Davis, Caitlin FitzGerald • 2016 • 87 minutes

    Two friends, both actresses (Halt and Catch Fire’s Mackenzie Davis and Masters of Sex’s Caitlin FitzGerald), leave Los Angeles for Big Sur embarking on a weekend getaway to reconnect. Once alone, howe...

  • California Solo (w/ Robert Carlyle)

    Directed by Marshall Lewy • Drama • With Robert Carlyle • 2012 • 93 minutes

    Lachlan MacAldonich is former Britpop rocker who has settled into a comfortably numb existence in farm country just outside Los Angeles. By day, he works on an organic farm and travels regularly to the city’s farmers’ ma...

  • Inbetween Girl

    Directed by Mei Makino • Drama • With Emma Galbraith, William Magnuson • 2021 • 90 minutes

    Teen artist Angie Chen does NOT like Liam--she just likes getting rides home from him after soccer practice. Okay, so he has great eyebrows, but he's with Sheryl, the Instagram princess of their Episcopali...

  • The Big Bad Swim

    Directed by Ishai Setton • Drama • With Paget Brewster, Jeff Branson, Jess Weixler • 2007 • 96 minutes

    Amy Malone (Paget Brewster) is a middle-aged calculus teacher going through a divorce. Her soon to be ex-husband, Paul, is a fellow co-worker at Old Lyme High School and under the current situa...