A Declaration of Independence? -- After the Oscars®2006 Review
by Edward X. Young

Read the Critic's reviews of the five nominated films

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At right: Three 6 Mafia, The Academy Award® Winners
for Best Song of 2005
"It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp" 
from HUSTLE & FLOW  

Are film-going audiences witnessing a new Revolution of Independent Filmmaking? 

CRASH, produced by Lions Gate, a company that specializes in independent productions, takes the lion’s share of the Hollywood Gold for Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Editing.  BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN, an openly gay-themed movie and a picture of undeniably daringly personal vision gets eight nominations (more than any other movie) and takes home three Academy Awards®.  For the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences (A.M.P.A.S.) to give the Oscar® for Best Song to the Memphis rap group Three 6 Mafia for “It’s Hard Out Here for A Pimp” from HUSTLE & FLOW displayed even more guts than when A.M.P.A.S. gave the Hollywood Gold to rapper Eminem in 2003 – even if this year’s skittish Oscar® telecast producers wimped out and still felt compelled to censor some words out of the lyrics.

In the end, who actually won the Academy Awards® hardly matters. The winners’ names will soon be forgotten and relegated to the multiple-choice questions in the future HollywoodGold trivia contest questions in SentinelSource.

What is important is that so many independent features (as opposed to the usual mega-million dollar blockbusters) were recognized. That widespread Oscar® recognition will ensure that (for the short run, at least) more and more independent films of refreshingly original themes will be made.  And more and more of these courageously personal, esoteric, and experimental films are now being made – with many of them produced far outside of the Hollywood studios.

Some of these movies are being shot right in our own backyard.

David Strathairn (this year’s Best Actor nominee for GOOD NIGHT & GOOD LUCK) chose to shoot his first film as a producer in Peterborough, New Hampshire.  Due to hit theaters in the fall, the independent feature THE SENSATION OF SIGHT, which stars David Strathairn (pictured right), Jane Adams, and Scott Wilson, also employed many local Peterborough residents as supporting actors and extras.

Another film will be shot in New Hampshire this July.  LOSING JERRY, which tells the tale of the emotional aftermath in the lives of Grateful Dead fans following the death of Jerry Garcia, will be produced by the makers of last year’s Best Picture Oscar-nominee FINDING NEVERLAND and filmed at Hampton Beach.

Your trusty SentinelSource Film Critic, Edward X. Young, had the opportunity to act in a film last year.  The independent feature, SEA OF DUST, was shot in New York and New Jersey and produced, directed and written by independent filmmaker Scott Bunt.  A period-piece horror film set at the turn of the 19^th century, SEA OF DUST, pays homage to the classic Hammer Films of the 60's that featured Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing (HORROR OF DRACULA, CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN) and is also a loving tribute to the sensual and savage works of Italian goremaster Mavio Bava (BLACK SUNDAY, BLACK SABBATH). Featuring mind-boggling gore effects created by special effects wizard Josh Turi, SEA OF DUST stars the renowned horror genre actor and special effects makeup genius Tom Savini (DAWN OF THE DEAD, FROM DUSK TILL DAWN) and the legendary “Scream Queen” Ingrid Pitt (pictured left with Edward X Young), who established her reputation in the 1970s horror classics THE VAMPIRE LOVERS and COUNTESS DRACULA.  Scheduled for release later this year, SEA OF DUST also features actors Stuart Rudin (Multiple Miggs in SILENCE OF THE LAMBS) and Bill Timoney, who plays Alfred Vanderpool on ABC TV’s daytime drama All MY CHILDREN. 

It now remains to be seen whether the unprecedented predominance of independent features recognized by A.M.P.A.S. at this year’s Oscars® was an anomaly -- or if it truly signifies a new trend.  We must all remember that this is Hollywood, where the name of the game is money – and in the end, the box office will dictate the outcome.

We can hope for the best and expect the worst.  But if we truly value the new wave of independent cinema, we the members of the film-going public cannot sit idly by and watch that wave recede with the tide.  We as the ticket-buyers and the video/DVD renters must realize that every time we choose a film we are casting a vote – and we must know that the Hollywood studio heads are keeping a close tally.

Do you really think that the Academy Awards® are about art?  It is precisely because low-budget and ruggedly independent features like TRANSAMERICA, JUNE BUG, and THE SQUID & THE WHALE found ticket-buying audiences and made a lot money (in relation to their production costs) that they caught Oscar’s® eye and garnered nominations.

The Revolution has started; but the battle is far from over.  This year A.M.P.A.S. may have displayed a new willingness to embrace original films and maverick filmmakers.  But if Hollywood really respected the artistic merits of independent filmmaking, THE DEVIL’S REJECTS (pictured right) would have won an Oscar®.