Books by Yannis Tzioumakis

This book illustrates the many ways that actors contribute to American independent cinema. The book offers a genealogy of industrial and aesthetic practices that connects independent filmmaking in the studio era and the 1960s and 1970s to American independent cinema in its independent, indie, indiewood, and late-indiewood forms.

This introduction to American Independent Cinema offers both a comprehensive industrial and economic history of the sector from the early twentieth century to the present and a study of key individual films, filmmakers and film companies.

For over three decades the major Hollywood studios have operated specialty film divisions, companies that were originally established to focus primarily on the European arthouse film market, before moving on to the burgeoning American independent film market and in the process transforming it in fundamental ways. Hollywood's Indies is the first book to offer an in depth examination of the phenomenon of the studio specialty film labels, by tracing their history since the establishment of the first such division in 1980, United Artists Classics. The book provides a detailed account of these divisions, their business practices, their position within the often labyrinthine structure of contemporary entertainment conglomerates, their relationship to the Hollywood majors and their contribution to independent cinema in the United States. In examining these companies Yannis Tzioumakis provides a fresh perspective on the history of contemporary American independent cinema, which he divides into three periods: the independent, the indie and the indiewood. Each of these eras is characterised by a particular group of studio specialty labels and, to a large extent, by a distinct expression of "e;independent"e; filmmaking. A number of case studies are provided, including such celebrated films as Lianna, Mystery Train, The Brothers McMullen, Barcelona, Greenberg, and many others.

A comprehensive history of commercial independent cinema from the studio era to the beginning of the 21st century.

Despite more than a passing nod to such crowdpleasing classics as Hitchcock's North by Northwest, playwright-turned-independent filmmaker David Mamet's The Spanish Prisoner is a particularly idiosyncratic film that betrays its origin outside the Hollywood mainstream. Featuring a convoluted narrative, an excessive, often anti-classical, visual style, and belonging to the generic category of the'con game film' which often challenges the spectator's cognitive skills, The Spanish Prisoner is a film that bridges genre filmmaking withpersonal visual style, independent film production with niche distribution,and mainstream subject matter with unconventional filmic techniques.This book discusses The Spanish Prisoner as an example of contemporary American independent cinema while also using the film as a vehicle to explore several key ideas in film studies, especially in terms of aesthetics, narrative, style, spectatorship, genre and industry.Key FeaturesoDistinguishes between independent and 'indie' cinema through anexamination of the 'classics divisions,' especially Sony Pictures ClassicsoAssesses the position of David Mamet within American cinemaoIntroduces the genre categories of the 'con artist' and the 'con game' filmand discusses The Spanish Prisoner as a key example of the latteroExamines the ways in which narrative, narration and visual style deviatefrom the mainstream/classical aesthetic