Indie Inc.

<p>During the 1990s films such as <i>sex lies and videotape</i> <i>The Crying Game</i> <i>Pulp Fiction</i> <i>Good Will Hunting</i> and <i>Shakespeare in Love</i> earned substantial sums at the box office along with extensive critical acclaim. A disproportionate number of these hits came from one company: Miramax. <i>Indie Inc.</i> surveys Miramax's evolution from independent producer-distributor to studio subsidiary chronicling how one company transformed not just the independent film world but the film and media industries more broadly. As Alisa Perren illustrates Miramax's activities had an impact on everything from film festival practices to marketing strategies talent development to awards campaigning.</p> <p>Case studies of key films including <i>The Piano</i> <i>Kids</i> <i>Scream</i> <i>The English Patient</i> and <i>Life Is Beautiful</i> reveal how Miramax went beyond influencing Hollywood business practices and motion picture aesthetics to shaping popular and critical discourses about cinema during the 1990s. <i>Indie Inc.</i> does what other books about contemporary low-budget cinema have not-it transcends discussions of American indies to look at the range of Miramax-released genre films foreign-language films and English-language imports released over the course of the decade. The book illustrates that what both the press and scholars have typically represented as the rise of the American independent was in fact part of a larger reconfiguration of the media industries toward niche-oriented products.</p>