Independent Growth Independent film is generally associated with creativity and originality, the auteur theory (the concept of the director as author), and lower budgets. However, these characteristics are not inherently founded in American cinema. The writers of the French film journal Cahiers du Cinema, many of whom are credited with leading the French New Wave, actually pioneered the filmmaking methods that would dominate The American Independents from the 1960’s on. In his book Celluloid Mavericks, …showed first 75 words of 884 total…

…showed last 75 words of 884 total…blockbusters. Merritt see the independents as having a specific niche that cannot be filled by the corporate, dominant Hollywood powers. “As long as there has been a motion picture industry there have been renegades working outside the walls, telling the stories the studios can’t or won’t tell--challenging, shocking, and inspiring” (Merritt, 411). It goes to show that money and power cannot necessarily provide everything people want or even want to see in the movies.