My first assignment for Film.com may end up being my toughest. In order to introduce myself to this “Indie Film” section, my editors want me to answer the following: “What is indie film and why is it important?”

The second half of the question is easier than the first, actually. Indie film is important because that is where chances are taken, where rules are broken, where personal voices are expressed. It’s a laboratory that influences the direction of mainstream. Indie films can be hit or miss, but the successes do end up affecting popular film culture in both style and substance. Just look at the crazy editing styles of Oliver Stone or Tony Scott or even Michael Bay, which can be traced back to experimental film and the French New Wave. Or look at the very personal, gay coming-of-age themes in Bryan Singer’s X-Men movies (as filtered through the metaphor of mutantism).

So yes, indie films are important because that is where cinematic change and evolution is tested and adopted, but that still doesn’t answer the question of what they are. In one sense, it’s easier to describe them in terms of what they’re not: they are not studio films with big Hollywood financing and guaranteed distribution.

Some people want to say that indie films are made under a certain price point, or believe that nothing being distributed by a major studio (even one of their specialty divisions) should land that label. Others say that independent is a state of mind during production no matter what the budget. They’re both right … to a point. As with the films themselves, you have to pick and choose what’s useful.

As for me, I’m going to keep a loose definition of indie. In this section, I'll be covering the smaller films, the art films, the low budget features and regional films that never seem to get television or full-page newspaper ads. And who am I? My name is Andy Spletzer and I helped start the Seattle alternative weekly newspaper The Stranger, where I served as the film editor for nine years. Since then I’ve continued as a freelance film critic, but I also work as a script supervisor on independent films, have made my own shorts, and work as a programmer for the Seattle International Film Festival.

This should be fun.

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