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A
Declaration of Independence? -- After the Oscar® Race 2006 Close this
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Are film-going audiences witnessing
a new Revolution of Independent Filmmaking?
CRASH, produced by Lions
Gate, a company that specializes in independent productions, takes the
lion’s share of the Hollywood Gold for Best Picture, Best
Original Screenplay, and Best Editing.
BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN, an openly gay-themed movie and a picture
of undeniably daringly personal vision gets eight nominations (more than
any other movie) and takes home three Academy Awards®.
For the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences® (A.M.P.A.S.)
to give the Oscar® for Best Song to the Memphis rap group Three
6 Mafia for “It’s Hard Out Here for A Pimp” from HUSTLE
& FLOW displayed even more guts than when A.M.P.A.S. gave the
Hollywood Gold to rapper Eminem in 2003 – even if this year’s
skittish Oscar® telecast producers wimped out and still felt compelled to
censor some words out of the lyrics. In the end, who
actually won the Academy Awards® hardly matters. The winners’ names
will soon be forgotten and relegated to the multiple-choice questions in
the future HollywoodGold trivia contest questions in SentinelSource. What is important is
that so many independent features (as opposed to the usual mega-million
dollar blockbusters) were recognized. That widespread Oscar® recognition
will ensure that (for the short run, at least) more and more independent
films of refreshingly original themes will be made.
And more and more of these courageously personal, esoteric, and
experimental films are now being made – with many of them produced far
outside of the Hollywood studios. Some of these movies
are being shot right in our own backyard. David Strathairn (this
year’s Best Actor nominee for GOOD NIGHT & GOOD LUCK)
chose to shoot his first film as a producer in Peterborough, New
Hampshire. Due to hit
theaters in the fall, the independent feature THE SENSATION OF SIGHT,
which stars David Strathairn, Jane Adams, and Scott
Wilson, also employed many local Peterborough residents as supporting
actors and extras. Another film will be
shot in New Hampshire this July. LOSING
JERRY, which tells the tale of the emotional aftermath in the lives of
Grateful Dead fans following the death of Jerry Garcia, will be produced
by the makers of last year’s Best Picture Oscar® -nominee FINDING
NEVERLAND and filmed at Hampton Beach. Your trusty
SentinelSource Film Critic, Edward X. Young, had the opportunity to
act in a film last year. The
independent feature, SEA OF DUST, was shot in New York and New
Jersey and produced, directed and written by independent filmmaker Scott
Bunt. A period-piece
horror film set at the turn of the 19th century, SEA OF DUST,
pays homage
to the classic Hammer Films of the 60's that featured Christopher
Lee and Peter Cushing (HORROR OF DRACULA, CURSE OF
FRANKENSTEIN) and is also a loving tribute to the sensual and savage
works of Italian goremaster Mavio Bava (BLACK SUNDAY, BLACK
SABBATH). Featuring mind-boggling gore effects created by special
effects wizard Josh Turi, SEA OF DUST stars the renowned
horror genre actor and special effects makeup genius Tom Savini (DAWN
OF THE DEAD, FROM DUSK TILL DAWN) and the legendary “Scream
Queen” Ingrid Pitt, who established her reputation in the 1970s
horror classics THE VAMPIRE LOVERS and COUNTESS DRACULA.
Scheduled for release later this year, SEA OF DUST also
features actors Stuart Rudin (Multiple Miggs in SILENCE OF THE
LAMBS) and Bill Timoney, who plays Alfred Vanderpool on ABC
TV’s daytime drama All MY CHILDREN.
It now remains to be seen whether
the unprecedented predominance of independent features recognized by
A.M.P.A.S. at this year’s Oscars® was
an anomaly -- or if it truly signifies a new trend.
We must all remember that this is Hollywood, where the name of the
game is money – and in the end, the box office will dictate the outcome. We can hope for the best and expect
the worst. But if we truly
value the new wave of independent cinema, we the members of the film-going
public cannot sit idly by and watch that wave recede with the tide.
We as the ticket-buyers and the video/DVD renters must realize that
every time we choose a film we are casting a vote – and we must know
that the Hollywood studio heads are keeping a close tally. Do you really think that the
Academy Awards® are about art?
It is precisely because low-budget and ruggedly independent
features like TRANSAMERICA, JUNE BUG, and THE SQUID &
THE WHALE found ticket-buying audiences and made a lot money (in
relation to their production costs) that they caught Oscar’s®
eye and garnered nominations. The Revolution has started; but the
battle is far from over. This
year A.M.P.A.S. may have displayed a new willingness to embrace original
films and maverick filmmakers. But
if Hollywood really respected the artistic merits of independent
filmmaking, THE DEVIL’S REJECTS would have won an Oscar®.
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