1990s Film/ The Blair Witch Project
the 1990s was a decade where independent films grew immensely. The decade is known as the golden age for black cinema and LGBT films. Independent films were often experimental, low budget and strange but still received success.
Miramax was an independent film distribution company founded by Harvey and Bob Weintstein in 1979. The company was responsible for a number of popular indie films in this time, including pulp fiction, reservoir dogs and kids.
Sundance Film Festival was an important part of the indie film movies and is considered ground zero for the movement boom in the 90s. The first festival was held in 1985 as a 10 day film showcase. The competition is so large that in 2018 3901 films were submitted and only 110 were chosen to screen at the Sun dance film festival.
Many drama films were released in the 90s, which included My own private Idaho, directed by Gus van Sant in 1991 features river phoenix and Keanu Reeves. The story has loosely based on William Shakespeares Henry IV parts 1 &2 , and henry V. Quentin Tarantino also directed his first feature length film, Reservoir Dogs, in 1992, whcih is regarded as an iconic indie film and launched the career of the influential director. El Mariachi (1992) was another indie film, created with a small budgets of just $7000 and directed by Robert Rodriguez.
Heavenly Creatures (1994) was also a crime drama, directed by Peter Jackson and filmed in New Zealand, Heavenly Creatures was one of his first non horror films.
Slacker (1990) was an indie film directed by Richard Linklater that focused on the culture of the youth in the 1990s. This seemed to be a familiar trend, as both Clerks (1994) Directed by Kevin Smith and Kids (1995) Directed by Larry Clark had a similar focus on creating a story involving the youth culture and rebellion of the 1990s era.
Another common trend seen throughout the decade in film was gritty action and drama films, a lot of indie titles delved into more controversial and less covered topics that Hollywood studios were often too scared to tackle. A few of these titles include:
Seven (1995)
Features Brad Pitt and morgan freeman
Directed by David Fincher
the plot of the movie follows a string of murders where the victims are linked to one of the seven deadly sins.
The Usual Suspects
Directed by Bryan Singer (also directed X-Men films)
1995
Swingers (1996)
Directed by Doug Liman
Bound (1996)
The Wachowkis
Boogie Night (1997)
Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson
Comedies were also another factor of the 90s film trends. these include titles such as
The Big Lebowski, directed by Coen Brothers Ethan and Joel, Being John Malkovich
Directed by Spike Jonze, and Election (1999) directed by Alexander Payne.
One of the most influential trends in genre for the 90s was the Horror genre of films.
Scream (1996) Directed by Wes Craven was an immensely successful films the played a lot on the tropes of horror films and the audiences expectations. The movie went on to have 4 sequels, proving the comedic spin on the genre to be very popular with audiences.
Blair witch project is debatably one of the most influential horror films of the decade. This fake documentary is a good example of how an indie film can be incredibly influential
was the start of the found footage genre. The film was made for a budget of $60,000 and made $248.6 million at the box office. The film was advertised as a documentary and many people online believed it was real.
This craze was due mostly in part to the films advertising scheme, where a fake website for the project was put up and slowly updated nearing to the films release. these would include statements from the missing persons families, journal entries, and staged photographs of the actors at film school. The movie was also advertised using missing posters with the actors faces plastered all over them.
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At this point in time the internet was in its fairly new state, so accessibility of the page and the popularity of the site really took off. however many critics believe that this kind of success would not be possible in modern times due to the inter connectivity of users between the internet, and how fast hoaxes often get debunked compared to 20 years in the past, as well as many internet users being much less gullible to the content they read online too.
Page, B. (2019, October 2). The Blair Witch Project (1999) • 20 Years Later. Retrieved from https://medium.com/framerated/the-blair-witch-project-1999-20-years-later-25c6b1bd23ff.
Miramax was an independent film distribution company founded by Harvey and Bob Weintstein in 1979. The company was responsible for a number of popular indie films in this time, including pulp fiction, reservoir dogs and kids.
Sundance Film Festival was an important part of the indie film movies and is considered ground zero for the movement boom in the 90s. The first festival was held in 1985 as a 10 day film showcase. The competition is so large that in 2018 3901 films were submitted and only 110 were chosen to screen at the Sun dance film festival.
Many drama films were released in the 90s, which included My own private Idaho, directed by Gus van Sant in 1991 features river phoenix and Keanu Reeves. The story has loosely based on William Shakespeares Henry IV parts 1 &2 , and henry V. Quentin Tarantino also directed his first feature length film, Reservoir Dogs, in 1992, whcih is regarded as an iconic indie film and launched the career of the influential director. El Mariachi (1992) was another indie film, created with a small budgets of just $7000 and directed by Robert Rodriguez.
Heavenly Creatures (1994) was also a crime drama, directed by Peter Jackson and filmed in New Zealand, Heavenly Creatures was one of his first non horror films.
Slacker (1990) was an indie film directed by Richard Linklater that focused on the culture of the youth in the 1990s. This seemed to be a familiar trend, as both Clerks (1994) Directed by Kevin Smith and Kids (1995) Directed by Larry Clark had a similar focus on creating a story involving the youth culture and rebellion of the 1990s era.
Another common trend seen throughout the decade in film was gritty action and drama films, a lot of indie titles delved into more controversial and less covered topics that Hollywood studios were often too scared to tackle. A few of these titles include:
Seven (1995)
Features Brad Pitt and morgan freeman
Directed by David Fincher
the plot of the movie follows a string of murders where the victims are linked to one of the seven deadly sins.
The Usual Suspects
Directed by Bryan Singer (also directed X-Men films)
1995
Swingers (1996)
Directed by Doug Liman
Bound (1996)
The Wachowkis
Boogie Night (1997)
Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson
Comedies were also another factor of the 90s film trends. these include titles such as
The Big Lebowski, directed by Coen Brothers Ethan and Joel, Being John Malkovich
Directed by Spike Jonze, and Election (1999) directed by Alexander Payne.
One of the most influential trends in genre for the 90s was the Horror genre of films.
Scream (1996) Directed by Wes Craven was an immensely successful films the played a lot on the tropes of horror films and the audiences expectations. The movie went on to have 4 sequels, proving the comedic spin on the genre to be very popular with audiences.
Blair witch project is debatably one of the most influential horror films of the decade. This fake documentary is a good example of how an indie film can be incredibly influential
was the start of the found footage genre. The film was made for a budget of $60,000 and made $248.6 million at the box office. The film was advertised as a documentary and many people online believed it was real.
This craze was due mostly in part to the films advertising scheme, where a fake website for the project was put up and slowly updated nearing to the films release. these would include statements from the missing persons families, journal entries, and staged photographs of the actors at film school. The movie was also advertised using missing posters with the actors faces plastered all over them.
At this point in time the internet was in its fairly new state, so accessibility of the page and the popularity of the site really took off. however many critics believe that this kind of success would not be possible in modern times due to the inter connectivity of users between the internet, and how fast hoaxes often get debunked compared to 20 years in the past, as well as many internet users being much less gullible to the content they read online too.
Page, B. (2019, October 2). The Blair Witch Project (1999) • 20 Years Later. Retrieved from https://medium.com/framerated/the-blair-witch-project-1999-20-years-later-25c6b1bd23ff.
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