Outsider Features

In the early 1980s, serious American independent films including Stranger Than Paradise, Blood Simple, and She's Gotta Have It attracted ever-widening audiences, culminating with Steven Soderbergh's award-winning sex, lies, and videotape. This film, which won the Cannes Film Festival's top award and took more than $30 million at the box office in the United States alone, capped a remarkable decade for off-Hollywood filmmakers. Outsider Features takes an in-depth look at 10 of the most successful independent feature films made during this decade, from John Sayles's seminal and groundbreaking The Return of the Secaucus Seven to Michael Moore's wry and irreverent Roger & Me, the most lucrative non-music documentary ever made. Outsider Features offers accounts of the genesis of each film, complete synopses and critical analyses, and biographies of each filmmaker.

RICHARD K. FERNCASE is Associate Professor of Film and Television at Chapman University in Southern California. He is an award-winning filmmaker and photographer and the author of two books on motion picture lighting.