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Shoot It! is a revealing history of how Hollywood, with its eye on the bottom line, arguably lost its ability to support the work of creative filmmakers; it is also a passionate portrait of the American independents, and others inside the international film scene, who have risen up to fill the void.
The book examines the Hollywood studio system over several decades, from the period when moguls like Harry and Jack Warner and Louis B. Mayer produced quality yet commercially viable films, to today, when studios seem only interested in surefire sequels and comic-book adaptations aimed at a global audience. By the same token, Shoot It! also celebrates today's great movies produced outside of the studio system, chronicling the international independent film movement in seven countries (the United States, Canada, Mexico, Britain, France, Romania, and South Korea), from its roots (French New Wave, British kitchen sink, the New York scene) to the revolutionary impact of digital technology. It also features new interviews from indie film notables such as Gus Van Sant, Mike Leigh, Claire Denis, Atom Egoyan, Catherine Breillat, Sally Potter, John Sayles, and Ken Loach.
While the studios envisage a generic universe, repressing local film cultures along the way, talented independents continue to tell local stories with universal appeal. This book is a celebration of those determined filmmakers who, despite it all, overcome every obstacle and just shoot it.
David Spaner is a film critic and freelance journalist in Vancouver, British Columbia.
"An engaging, comprehensive history of the highs and lows of independent film. . . . The insight from numerous industry insiders, combined with Spaner's historical overview, proves that the history of independent film can be just as interesting as the films themselves." —MovieMaker magazine
"There have been plenty of history books written about independent film, but few take the expansive, international view of journalist and critic David Spaner in his new book Shoot It!" —Indie Wire
"A sort of alt.history of the movies, David Spaner’s book attempts to find a common ground of anti-American corporate resistance linking 1920s union organizers, blacklist victims of the 1950s, John Cassavetes, the French New Wave, New York punk bohemians, Method actors and international filmmakers." —The Globe and Mail
David Spaner: David Spaner has worked as a movie critic, feature writer, reporter, and editor for numerous newspapers and magazines. He is the author of Dreaming in the Rain: How Vancouver Became Hollywood North by Northwest. He lives in Vancouver, Canada.
CONTENTS
Class War in the Valley
The Cossacks are Coming
Hollywood Exiles
The Actor Rebellion
The Cassavetes Group
New Hollywood
New York Magic
Studio Nation
France—The Impossible is Realistic
Great Britain— The Ideological is Personal
South Korea—Sympathy for Quota Vengeance
Mexico—Revolution and Hollywood
Romania—Out of the Silence
Canada—Goin' Down the U.S. Road
U.S.—Just Real
Hollywood Ending