Just what is "independent" cinema? D. K. Holm, columnist for Kevin Smith's website and author of Robert Crumb and Quentin Tarantino , aims to define a term that can be difficult to distinguish from categories such as avant-garde, underground, experimental, or art films. By contrasting studio-era Hollywood with changes in the business since the 1970s and chronicling the rise of companies such as Miramax and New Line, this book shows the birth of a commercial environment in which the new independent cinema could emerge. Detailed assessments and previously unpublished interviews with filmmakers, such as James Mangold (Walk the Line), Jill Sprecher (Clockwatchers), and Guy Maddin (The Saddest Music in the World) show the vastly different roles independent cinema can play in different hands. An accompanying DVD features Paul Cronin's documentary Film as a Subversive Art: Amos Vogel and Cinema 16, about the founder of the New York Film Festival and one of the country's most important film societies.