Four Independent Filmmakers Who Revolutionized American Movies
March 16, 23, 30 April 6, 13, 20, 27, May 4
On-Campus – Monday 1:10 pm – 2:50 pm
Explore how four major independent filmmakers found ways to create successful films outside the world of the major studio system. Join us to look into the work and careers of John Cassavetes, Steven Soderberg, Quentin Tarantino and Richard Linklater.
- Week 1: John Cassavetes – Moves from actor to writer-director and self-finances to insure his independence. Launched a movement with Shadows in 1960
- Week 2: John Cassavetes – Joins forces with his actress wife Gena Rowlands, who became his muse in many films over decades
- Week 3: Steven Soderbergh – Launches the modern indie era with the Sundance Festival premiere of sex, lies, and videotape in 1989
- Week 4: Steven Soderbergh – Helps establish Miramax Films, which would become crucial indie distributor of Quentin Tarantino and others. Soderbergh would successfully add mainstream films like Traffic and Ocean’s Eleven to his resume.
- Week 5: Quentin Tarantino – From video store clerk to hot indie director with out-of-nowhere critical hit Reservoir Dogs in 1992. Miramax strikes it big with Tarantino’s smash hit Pulp Fiction in 1993.
- Week 6: Quentin Tarantino – Stays indie and remains under Miramar’s wing with a series of hits including Jackie Brown and Inglorious Bastards. After Harvey Weinstein’s downfall Tarantino joins forces with Sony for the 2019 smash hit Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
- Week 7: Richard Linklater – Inspires countless indie filmmakers with the ultra-low budget 1990 debut Shifts from indie productions to studio gigs and back again
- Week 8: Richard Linklater – Plays with time in a spectacularly innovative manner with the Before trilogy and with Boyhood, which was shot over the course of a decade. Continues his uniquely diverse career with double-barreled fall 2025 release of Nouvelle Vague and Blue Moon.
Joe Meyers earned his BA from Penn State with a major in journalism and minor in film. He is Director of Programming for the Focus on French Cinema film festival in Connecticut. He is co-host of the Spotify podcast ‘Now a Major Motion Picture!’ and wrote features about movies, theater and books for more than 30 years for the Hearst Connecticut Media Group and other publications. In the 1970s, Meyers ran the first (and only) art house on the Delmarva Peninsula—the Lewes Cinema. The Mystery Writers of America awarded Meyers the Ellery Queen Award for his writing on crime fiction.