5/27/2009

Indie Culture

New work: "Indie Culture: In Pursuit of the Authentic Autonomous Alternative" Cinema Journal 48.3 (Spring 2009), 16-34 (pdf; I gave a portion of this paper at the 2007 SCMS in Chicago). Abstract: American independent cinema since the 1980s has in common with other forms of "indie" culture its construction as an authentic, autonomous alternative to mainstream media. "Indie" is contradictory insofar as it at once serves to oppose the dominant culture but also to produce cultural capital that distinguishes its consumers.