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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  • La Medea

    Directed by Yara Travieso • Documentary • With Rena Butler • 2017 • 74 minutes

    Embracing a multiplicity of cultural lenses, LA MEDEA confronts the historically prevalent image of the hysterical, dangerous, foreign woman and offers a revolutionary female figure willing to destroy her world in the...

  • Christmas, Again

    Directed by Charles Poekel • Drama • With Kentucker Audley, Hannah Gross • 2015 • 80 minutes

    For a fifth consecutive December, a heartbroken Noel returns to New York City to work the night shift at a sidewalk Christmas tree lot. Devoid of any holiday spirit, he struggles to stay awake during the...

  • No Light and No Land Anywhere

    Directed by Amber Sealy • Drama • With Gemma Brockis, Jennifer LaFleur, Kent Osborne, David Sullivan • 2018 • 75 minutes

    Grieving her mother’s death and her own failing marriage, Lexi boards a plane from London to Los Angeles in search of the estranged father who abandoned her when she was three...

  • We Need to Talk About Kevin

    Directed by Lynne Ramsay • Drama • With Tilda Swinton, John C. Reilly, Ezra Miller • 2010 • 112 minutes

    A suspenseful and gripping psychological thriller, Lynne Ramsay’s WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN explores the fractious relationship between a mother and her evil son. Tilda Swinton, in a bracing...

  • 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 ...

  • Parting Glances

    Directed by Bill Sherwood • Drama • With Richard Ganoung, John Bolger, Steve Buscemi, Adam Nathan, Kathy Kinney • 1986 • 90 minutes

    Heroic, funny and romantic, Parting Glances is a triumph for everyone who has ever been in love-straight or gay. The story revolves around two men, Michael and Robe...

  • Superior

    Directed by Erin Vassilopoulos • Drama • With Alessandra Mesa, Ani Mesa • 2021 • 99 minutes

    When Marian is on the run, she goes to the only place she knows is safe: her childhood home. She is greeted by her estranged sister, Vivian, a stay-at-home housewife struggling to conceive and on the verg...

  • Wendy and Lucy (Kelly Reichardt, w/ Michelle Williams)

    Directed by Kelly Reichardt • Drama • With Michelle Williams, Walter Dalton, Will Oldham, John Robinson, Larry Fessenden, Will Patton • 2008 • 80 minutes

    Proving why she is one of the most highly-regarded auteurs of current cinema, Kelly Reichardt's (OLD JOY) subtle storytelling technique uses a...

  • How He Fell in Love

    Directed by Marc Meyers • Drama • With Matt McGorry, Amy Hargreaves, Mark Blum • 2015 • 108 minutes

    Travis, a struggling young musician, crosses paths with Ellen, an older, married yoga instructor who is in the process of adopting a child. Travis and Ellen begin an affair that slowly deepens int...

  • Born in Flames (Lizzie Borden)

    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...

  • Jess + Moss

    Directed by Clay Jeter • Drama • With Sarah Hagan, Austin Vickers • 2011 • 82 minutes

    Jess, age 18 (Sarah Hagan) and Moss, age 12 (Austin Vickers) are second cousins in the dark-fire tobacco fields of rural Western Kentucky. Without immediate families that they can relate to, and lacking friends...

  • 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...

  • In the Soup

    Directed by Alexandre Rockwell • Drama • With Steve Buscemi, Seymour Cassel, Jennifer Beals • 1992 • 96 minutes

    Aldolpho (Steve Buscemi) is an aspiring writer-director who can't even claim to be scraping by. No one will touch his flagrantly anti-commercial epic-length script, his acting gigs off...

  • Lyle

    Directed by Stewart Thorndike • Drama • With Gaby Hoffmann, Ingrid Jungermann • 2014 • 62 minutes

    Leah's grief over her toddler's death turns into paranoia when she begins to suspect her neighbors are part of a satanic cult. 

  • The Second Time Around

    Directed by Leon Marr • Drama • With Linda Thorson, Stuart Margolin • 2017 • 108 minutes

    Katherine Mitchell (Linda Thorson), a widowed yet vibrant senior, wasn't looking for love a second time - not at her age, and certainly not with grumpy Isaac Shapiro (Stuart Margolin). Despite the nosey bunc...

  • What Doesn’t Float

    Directed by Luca Balser • Drama • With Pauline Chalamet, Roger Howarth, Larry Fessenden • 2023 • 69 minutes

    Seven stories. One city. A disparate group of characters fill out this darkly comedic anthology of New Yorkers at their wits end. When the dailiness of urban life is suspended by an unfore...

  • Marvin, Seth and Stanley

    Directed by Stephen Gurewitz • Drama • With Alex Karpovsky, Marvin Gurewitz, Stephen Gurewitz • 2014 • 72 minutes

    Good natured Marvin summons estranged sons Seth (Alex Karpovsky), a smug careerist going through a divorce, and Stanley, a delicate aspiring actor, for a father-son bonding fishing t...

  • A Spell to Ward Off the Darkness

    Directed by Ben Rivers & Ben Russell • Drama • With Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe • 2014 • 98 minutes

    A SPELL follows an unnamed character through three seemingly disparate moments in his life. With little explanation, we join him in the midst of a 15-person collective on a small Estonian island; in i...

  • Bad Fever

    Directed by Dustin Guy Defa • Drama • With Kentucker Audley, Eleonore Hendricks • 2012 • 77 minutes

    Alternatively quiet and delirious, always desperate, Bad Fever is a witness to one man’s broken American dream and his eternal longing to find someone, anyone, who understands or even pretends to ...

  • For the Plasma

    Directed by Bingham Bryant, Kyle Molzan • Drama • With Anabelle LeMieux, Rosalie Lowe • 2016 • 94 minutes

    For the Plasma begins in a remote house on the coast of Maine, where a young woman named Helen has found work as a forest-fire lookout responsible for monitoring the nearby woodland. While a...

  • The Winds That Scatter

    Directed by Christopher Jason Bell • Drama • 2015 • 79 minutes

    Ahmad Chahrour, in his acting debut plays a refugee from Syria that shares his name. After he loses his menial employment at a gas station, he does his best to navigate the American economy with optimism and good faith. Soon, reality...

  • The Hole Story

    Directed by Alex Karpovsky • Drama • With Alex Karpovsky • 2005 • 83 minutes

    An aspiring television producer cashes in his life savings to produce the pilot to a documentary television series, only to find himself in a battle with nature, reality and his own internal demons.

  • Happer's Comet

    Directed by Tyler Taormina • Drama • With Grace Berlino, Michael Gugliamo • 2022 • 62 minutes

    Following his acclaimed debut HAM ON RYE, Tyler Taormina’s hypnotic follow-up is a midnight mosaic that reveals a suburban town steeped in alienation. It’s the middle of the night, but things are far fr...

  • Lenz

    Directed by Alexandre Rockwell • Drama • With Alexander Alexeieff, Kim Marie Radonovich • 1982 • 92 minutes

    An adaptation of George Buchner's novella, "Lenz", chronicling the poet Jakob Lenz's slide into insanity and madness. The setting is transposed from 18th century Germany to New York in the...