Spike, Mike, Slackers & Dykes: A Guided Tour across a Decade of American Independent Cinema

394 Pages·2014·21.65 MB·English

by  John Pierson

Film and Media studies Pierson
“The most contentiously witty and “Mr. Pierson might be described as the
revealing view of off-Hollywood around.” Ubermensch of Independentsville.”
—Rolling Stone —New York Times
“John Pierson has faithfully chronicled “A marvelously entertaining, educational,
the American independent scene. He was and caustic account of the rise of
there, he knows.” —Spike Lee American independent filmmaking.”
—Globe and Mail
“Sly, knowledgeable, deeply entertaining.
. . . You couldn’t do much better than to “The bible for independents.” M i k e ,
hop aboard this ten-year wild ride. —Peter Biskind, Nation M
Grade: A.” —Entertainment Weekly
“A fast-moving account of the era
i
“Mr. Pierson, who has lived, breathed, bookended by Stranger Than Paradise
and hunted film for most of his adult life, and Pulp Fiction, SMS&D is a highly k
covers his territory with urgency and personal Baedeker of off-Hollywood,
conviction, and his single-mindedness where all roads lead to Park City.” S l a c k e r s
e
is ravishing.” —Interview
—New York Times Book Review
,
“A must-read book about independent

“Pierson’s prose is quick-moving and films and filmmaking. . . . [the] definitive S
witty and reads like a Who’s Who of indie tome.” —Indiewire l
the off-Hollywood mavericks who make
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the movies we’d like to see but can’t
always find.” —Washington Post c & D y k e s
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John Pierson University of Texas Press
hunted down, represented,
www.utexaspress.com s
and, in some cases, financed over twenty first-
800.252.3206
time independent features by directors including &
Cover photo:
Spike Lee, Michael Moore, Richard Linklater,
© Shutterstock/Andresr
and Kevin Smith. After writing this chronicle A Guided Tour Across A decAde
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Cover design by
of that era, he created and hosted IFCtv’s first
Andrew J. Brozyna y
original series Split Screen, a globe-trotting, of AmericAn independenT cinemA
magazine-format show by filmmakers for film k
$29.95
aficionados, which eventually took him and his e
Printed in U.S.A.
family to Fiji’s remote 180 Meridian Cinema. s
When he returned, Pierson moved to Austin to
J o h n P i e r s o n
teach in the University of Texas Department of
Radio-Television-Film, where he’s interviewed
over seventy notable industry guests in his RTF
master class.
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SPIKE. NIKE, SLACKERS & DIKES

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LACKERS 8 wIKI
A Guided Tour Across
a Decade of American
Independent Cinema
JOHN PICRSON
With the (onvenational Collaboration of
KEVIN SMITH
UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS PRESS
AUSTIN
Copyright© 1995, 1997John Pierson
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
First University of Texas Press edition, 2014
Frontispiece by Emily Breer
Requests for permission to reproduce material from this work should be sent to:
Permissions
University of Texas Press
P.O. Box 7819
Austin, TX 78713-7819
http://utpr ess .utexas.edu/index .php/rp-f or m
©The paper used in this book meets the minimum requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-
1992 (R1997) (Permanence of Paper).
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Pierson, John
Spike, Mike, slackers &C dykes : a guided tour across a decade of American independent
cinema / by John Pierson—1st ed.
p. cm
1. Motion picture producers and directors—United States. 2. Low budget motion pic
tures. 3. Motion pictures—United States—History. 4. Motion pictures—Production
and direction. I. Title.
PN1998.2.P56 1996 95-24979
791.43'0233'092273—dc20 CIP
ISBN 978-0-292-75768-4
doi: 10.7560/757684
FOR JANET
A great sounding board,
Although much softer
THIS PAGE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK
COHTEHTS
Introduction: Stranger Than Fiction 1
Dialogue /Leaden 4
A Quick and Slanted Pre-1984 History 6
Dialogue/Starting Point 21
Stranger Than Paradise and the Tint Golden Age 24
Dialogue / Paradise 31
Parting Glances & The Nw Queer Cinema 34
She's Gotta Have It 45
Tube Socks and Tube Steaks 45
Black and White 56
Birth of a Salesman 66
Dialogue/Be Like Spike 79
Working Girls and Women 83
Inspector Errol Morris Walks The Thin Blue Line 103
DM 114
The Dance Part 1 114
Deceased 118
Quantity Not Quality 121
123
1989: The Year It All Changed 126
viii Contents
Dialogue /sex and Roger
133
Roger and Michael and Me
137
The Cinderella Syndrome 137
How to Make a Studio Deal 152
The Morning After 165
Dialogue / Role Models
177
Ming Off
185
Dialogue / Straight Outta Business
198
The Next Soderbergh
202
Sundance 1990 205
Sundance 1991 207
Sundance 1992 209
Dialogue/Dogs
212
Sons of Mean Streets
218
Dialogue/ $26,685
228
How Low (an a Budget 60?
234
Dialogue / Shannen
239
Amongst Jerks: Rob Weiss and the Dark Side of Overnight Success
249
Toll Money 249
Hitchcock: Who Needs Him? 257
Murder Ink 265
The Odd Couple: Sundance 1994
279
In Hock and Staying There
299
60 Fiscal: Anatomy of a Back End
311
A Doc In The House
319
Dialogue/The (lerky Boys
330
Epilogue: It's A Wonderful Life, July 4, 1995 331
Acknowledgments 339
Appendix I 341
Appendix II 355
Appendix III 357
INTRODUCTION:
STRANGER THAN FICTION
A
busybody neighbor of mine on MacDougal Alley once went to see
The Thin Blue Line just to report back to the block that I had noth
ing to do with it. Not only is my name not found above the title,
it's never been anywhere in the head credits. Sometimes if you sit
patiently to the very end of the end credits you just might find sketchy
evidence in the alphabetical thank-yous that I exist. And that's as it
should be.
My local Hudson Valley art exhibitor once introduced me as a "bag
man" for independent movies. Now I've been called a lot of peculiar
things in print—guru, dealmeister, scout, shaman, veteran angel, fer
ret, Johnny Appleseed, kingmaker, a filmmaker's best friend, icon—al
most always preceded by the adjective "indie." I think of myself as a film
lover who got married in a theater while showing the wedding guests a
movie. But "bag man?" I guess I forgot about the secret cash deliveries
to the set in the middle of the night.
I did write Spike Lee a check for $10,000 to finish She's Gotta Have
It, close a $3 million deal with a major studio for Michael Moore's doc
umentary Roger & Me, help make Slacker 9. household word, unleash