Pie-in-the-Sky Farm B&B and Retreat
For more info, contact Rick Winston winsrick@sover.net or Jude Sargent vermont@pieinsky.com

Session #1 – Saturday, January 28 at 2:00 PM Early days (1930-1970)

Oscar Micheaux, Sidney Meyers, Maya Deren, Morris Engel, Ruth Orkin, Leo Hurwitz: these are some of the unsung pioneers of the American independent film movement during the 1930s, 40s and 50s, whose work we’ll sample. They laid the groundwork for filmmakers such as John Cassavetes (Shadows), Robert Downey Sr. (Putney Swope), and Kenneth Anger (Scorpio Rising), whose work in the1960s made audiences aware of the artistry and liberating attitudes of films made on the margins.

Session #2 – Saturday, February 18 at 2:00 PM The “Indie” explosion of the 1980s

The first half of the 1980s featured the breakthrough films of Spike Lee (She’s Gotta Have It), Jim Jarmusch (Stranger Than Paradise), John Sayles (The Return of the Secaucus Seven), and Joel & Ethan Coen (Blood Simple). Independent films were at last drawing significant audiences, and documentary films such as Michael Moore’s “Roger and Me” and Errol Morris’ “The Thin Blue Line” crossed over to mainstream success. We’ll look at the creative styles and challenging subject matter of some of these independent films and examine how they affected the industry as a whole.

Session #3 – Saturday, March 11 at 2:00 PM The 1990s to the Present: What does “independent” mean anyway?

Several trends have emerged over the past 25 years: politically engaged documentaries (The Fog of War, The House I Live In); the emergence of a new generation of talented writer-directors (Wes Anderson, Quentin Tarantino, Nicole Holofcener, Lisa Cholodenko, Noah Baumbach); new technologies that are conducive to very low budget productions; and the Hollywood studios’ own creation of semi-autonomous independent units, resulting in quasi-independent films that dominate the Oscar nominations. We’ll look some the exciting and challenging films that are the hallmarks of the contemporary independent scene.