FMS 240 - What Hollywood Can’t Do: The Rise of American Independent Cinema

This alternate history of American cinema celebrates the vibrant film communities and genres that thrived outside of Hollywood, including horror, B-movies, Blaxploitation, experimental film, and midnight movies. The course also highlights maverick filmmakers who pioneered new forms and expressed ideas and experiences about race, gender, sexuality, and class that were excluded from the mainstream movies. 

We will explore how this exciting work subverted American cinematic and social norms, changed censorship laws, influenced movements such as punk and hip hop, and eventually infiltrated the mainstream. Each week will watch movies from the 1940s through the 1990s, examining their historical contexts and unique artistic qualities.