Outsider Features: American Independent Films of the 1980s

In the early-1980s, serious American independent films including Stranger Than Paradise , Blood Simple and She’s Gotta Have It attracted ever-widening audiences, culminating with Steven Soderbergh’s award-winning Sex, Lies and Videotape . This film, which won the Cannes Film Festival’s top award and took more than $30 million at the box office in the United States alone, capped a remarkable decade for off-Hollywood film-makers. Outsider Features takes an in-depth look at ten of the most successful independent feature films made during this decade, from John Sayle’s seminal and groundbreaking The Return of the Secaucus Seven to Michael Moore’s wry and irreverent Roger & Me , the most lucrative non-music documentary ever made. Outsider Features offers accounts of the genesis of each film, complete synopses and critical analyses, and biographies of each film-maker.