Eye For Film >> Festivals >> Glasgow >> 2011 >> The State Of Independents

The very best independent cinema from America features stories of angst and alienation, troubled romance and family strife alongside gripping action thrillers and a touch of the supernatural. Take the plunge and you're bound to find something that you'll love.

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A Marine Story and Howl

Guy And Madeline On A Park Bench (Country: US; Year: 2009; Director: Damien Chazelle; Writer: Damien Chazelle; Stars: Desiree Garcia, Sandha Khin, Jason Palmer)

First-time director Damien Chazelle infuses his black-and-white, vérité-style relationship drama with all that jazzy romance of an old-Hollywood musical. Backed by a grand, alternately rollicking and melancholy score, Guy and Madeline tracks a pair of young lovers in Boston after they separate, search for new romance, and perhaps find their way back to each other.

Howl (Country: US; Year: 2010; Director: Rob Epstein, Jeffrey Friedman; Writer: Rob Epstein, Jeffrey Friedman; Stars: James Franco, Mary-Louise Parker, Jon Hamm, Jeff Daniels, Alessandro Nivola, David Strathairn, Treat Williams, Aaron Tveit, Bob Balaban, Jon Prescott, Todd Rotondi, Andrew Rogers, Cecilia Foss, William Fowle, Anna Kuchma)

The story of Allen Ginsberg’s ground-breaking poem is told through a mixture of reconstruction and animation.

Full Review See: Sundance Film Festival 2010: Days Seven and Eight

The Imperialists Are Still Alive! (Country: US; Year: 2010; Director: Zeina Durra; Writer: Zeina Durra; Stars: Élodie Bouchez, José María de Tavira, Karim Saleh, Karolina Muller, Armin Amiri, Marianna Kulukundis, Rita Ackerman, Pierluca Arancio, Karen Lynn Gorney, Oksana Lada, Robert Prescott, Anthony John Crane, Alexander Wraith, Vitali Baganov, Jessica Pimentel)

Juggling the sudden abduction of her childhood sweetheart as well as a blooming love affair, a French Manhattanite makes her way as an artist in an indifferent, sometimes hostile world.

A Marine Story (Country: US; Year: 2010; Director: Ned Farr; Writer: Ned Farr; Stars: Dreya Weber, Paris P Pickard, Christine Mourad)

A highly capable soldier who is quietly dismissed after it's discovered she's a lesbian takes on the training of a troubled local teenager who wants to join up.

Full Review

Meek's Cutoff (Country: US; Year: 2010; Director: Kelly Reichardt; Writer: Jonathan Raymond; Stars: Paul Dano, Bruce Greenwood, Shirley Henderson, Neal Huff, Zoe Kazan, Tommy Nelson, Will Patton, Rod Rondeaux, Michelle Williams)

Drama tracks a wagon train on the 1840s Oregon Trail.

Full Review

Tiny Furniture and Meek's Cutoff

New Low (Country: US; Year: 2009; Director: Adam Bowers; Writer: Adam Bowers; Stars: Adam Bowers, Jayme Ratzer, Toby Turner, Valerie Jones)

A neurotic twentysomething struggles to figure out which girl he really belongs with: the best one he's ever known... or the worst.

Stake Land (Country: US; Year: 2010; Director: Jim Mickle; Writer: Nick Damici, Jim Mickle; Stars: Danielle Harris, Kelly McGillis, Connor Paolo)

A small group of people travel through a post-Apocalyptic America where fundamentalist cultists and deadly vampires make staying alive a constant battle.

Full Review

Tiny Furniture (Country: US; Year: 2010; Director: Lena Dunham; Writer: Lena Dunham; Stars: Lena Dunham, Laurie Simmons, Grace Dunham, Jemima Kirke, Alex Karpovsky, David Call) , Official Site

A recent graduate returning to her hometown struggles to find direction in a family where everybody else seems brilliantly talented.

Full Review