Success Stories

Gus Van Sant - Director of To Die For, Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, My Own Private Idaho and Drugstore Cowboy:
“Pretty much my attitude as an independent filmmaker and as even a mainstream filmmaker is that I look for something new and unusual. Independent filmmaking to me means that you’re trying to make something that isn’t going to look like Batman...
“As an independent, I’ve always looked to things that Hollywood wouldn’t make because their stories didn’t confirm the status quo or conventional politics or ideology or religion. A lot of stories caught my interest in particular because they were labeled ‘wrong.’ I don’t mean wrong in the literal context, but wrong in the challenge to make them work was great. To make a script that can obviously be a great movie isn’t the challenge I’m looking for. I see no reason to make that movie.”
On being a true independent:
“To me a group of people making a picture independently means without restrictions, meaning creative restrictions. That’s my definition of an independent movie. The true independents also sell the film themselves.”
Source: Variety, July 25, 1995