Spike, Mike, Slackers & Dykes: A Guided Tour Across a Decade of American Independent Cinema
“A fast-moving account of the era bookended by Stranger Than Paradise and Pulp Fiction . . . [a] Baedeker of off-Hollywood where all roads lead to Park City.” —Interview
 
The legendary figure who launched the careers of Spike Lee, Michael Moore, and Richard Linklater offers a no-holds-barred look at the deals and details that propel an indie film from a dream to distribution. At the epicenter of the industry in the 1980s and ’90s, John Pierson reveals what it took to launch such films as Stranger Than Paradise, Clerks, She’s Gotta Have It, and Roger and Me. A chronicle of a remarkable decade for the American independent low-budget film, Spike, Mike, Slackers & Dykes also celebrates the nearly two dozen first-time filmmakers whom Pierson helped make a name for themselves and the hundred others whose success stories he observed at close quarters.
 
“John Pierson has faithfully chronicled the American independent scene. He was there, he knows.” —Spike Lee
 
“Sly, knowledgeable, deeply entertaining . . . You couldn’t do much better than to hop aboard this ten-year wild ride. Grade: A.” —Entertainment Weekly
 
“The most contentiously witty and revealing view of off-Hollywood around.” —Rolling Stone
 
“Mr. Pierson, who has lived, breathed, and hunted film for most of his adult life, covers his territory with urgency and conviction, and his single-mindedness is ravishing.” —The New York Times Book Review
 
“Pierson’s prose is quick-moving and witty and reads like a Who’s Who of the off-Hollywood mavericks who make the movies we’d like to see but can’t always find.” —The Washington Post
 
“A marvelously entertaining, educational, and caustic account of the rise of American independent filmmaking.” —The Globe and Mail
"1117239373"
Spike, Mike, Slackers & Dykes: A Guided Tour Across a Decade of American Independent Cinema
“A fast-moving account of the era bookended by Stranger Than Paradise and Pulp Fiction . . . [a] Baedeker of off-Hollywood where all roads lead to Park City.” —Interview
 
The legendary figure who launched the careers of Spike Lee, Michael Moore, and Richard Linklater offers a no-holds-barred look at the deals and details that propel an indie film from a dream to distribution. At the epicenter of the industry in the 1980s and ’90s, John Pierson reveals what it took to launch such films as Stranger Than Paradise, Clerks, She’s Gotta Have It, and Roger and Me. A chronicle of a remarkable decade for the American independent low-budget film, Spike, Mike, Slackers & Dykes also celebrates the nearly two dozen first-time filmmakers whom Pierson helped make a name for themselves and the hundred others whose success stories he observed at close quarters.
 
“John Pierson has faithfully chronicled the American independent scene. He was there, he knows.” —Spike Lee
 
“Sly, knowledgeable, deeply entertaining . . . You couldn’t do much better than to hop aboard this ten-year wild ride. Grade: A.” —Entertainment Weekly
 
“The most contentiously witty and revealing view of off-Hollywood around.” —Rolling Stone
 
“Mr. Pierson, who has lived, breathed, and hunted film for most of his adult life, covers his territory with urgency and conviction, and his single-mindedness is ravishing.” —The New York Times Book Review
 
“Pierson’s prose is quick-moving and witty and reads like a Who’s Who of the off-Hollywood mavericks who make the movies we’d like to see but can’t always find.” —The Washington Post
 
“A marvelously entertaining, educational, and caustic account of the rise of American independent filmmaking.” —The Globe and Mail
13.49 In Stock
Spike, Mike, Slackers & Dykes: A Guided Tour Across a Decade of American Independent Cinema

Spike, Mike, Slackers & Dykes: A Guided Tour Across a Decade of American Independent Cinema

by John Pierson
Spike, Mike, Slackers & Dykes: A Guided Tour Across a Decade of American Independent Cinema

Spike, Mike, Slackers & Dykes: A Guided Tour Across a Decade of American Independent Cinema

by John Pierson

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Overview

“A fast-moving account of the era bookended by Stranger Than Paradise and Pulp Fiction . . . [a] Baedeker of off-Hollywood where all roads lead to Park City.” —Interview
 
The legendary figure who launched the careers of Spike Lee, Michael Moore, and Richard Linklater offers a no-holds-barred look at the deals and details that propel an indie film from a dream to distribution. At the epicenter of the industry in the 1980s and ’90s, John Pierson reveals what it took to launch such films as Stranger Than Paradise, Clerks, She’s Gotta Have It, and Roger and Me. A chronicle of a remarkable decade for the American independent low-budget film, Spike, Mike, Slackers & Dykes also celebrates the nearly two dozen first-time filmmakers whom Pierson helped make a name for themselves and the hundred others whose success stories he observed at close quarters.
 
“John Pierson has faithfully chronicled the American independent scene. He was there, he knows.” —Spike Lee
 
“Sly, knowledgeable, deeply entertaining . . . You couldn’t do much better than to hop aboard this ten-year wild ride. Grade: A.” —Entertainment Weekly
 
“The most contentiously witty and revealing view of off-Hollywood around.” —Rolling Stone
 
“Mr. Pierson, who has lived, breathed, and hunted film for most of his adult life, covers his territory with urgency and conviction, and his single-mindedness is ravishing.” —The New York Times Book Review
 
“Pierson’s prose is quick-moving and witty and reads like a Who’s Who of the off-Hollywood mavericks who make the movies we’d like to see but can’t always find.” —The Washington Post
 
“A marvelously entertaining, educational, and caustic account of the rise of American independent filmmaking.” —The Globe and Mail

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780292761018
Publisher: University of Texas Press
Publication date: 02/24/2022
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 392
Sales rank: 926,469
File size: 17 MB
Note: This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

John Pierson hunted down, represented, and, in some cases, financed over twenty first-time independent features by directors including Spike Lee, Michael Moore, Richard Linklater, and Kevin Smith. After writing this chronicle of that era, he created and hosted IFCtv's first original series Split Screen, a globe-trotting, magazine-format show by filmmakers for film aficionados, which eventually took him and his family to Fiji's remote 180 Meridian Cinema. When he returned, Pierson moved to Austin to teach in the University of Texas Department of Radio-Television-Film, where he’s interviewed over seventy notable industry guests in his RTF master class.

Table of Contents

  • Introduction: Stranger Than Fiction
  • Dialogue. Leaders
  • A Quick and Slanted Pre-1984 History
  • Dialogue. Starting Point
  • Stranger Than Paradise and the First Golden Age
  • Dialogue. Paradise
  • Parting Glances & The New Queer Cinema
  • She’s Gotta Have It
  • Tube Socks and Tube Steaks
  • Black and White
  • Birth of a Salesman
  • Dialogue. Be Like Spike
  • Working Girls and Women
  • Inspector Errol Morris Walks The Thin Blue Line
  • D.O.A.
  • The Dance Part 1
  • Deceased
  • Quantity Not Quality
  • Dialogue. Batman and Sex
  • 1989: The Year It All Changed
  • Dialogue. Sex and Roger
  • Roger and Michael and Me
  • The Cinderella Syndrome
  • How to Make a Studio Deal
  • The Morning After
  • Dialogue. Role Models
  • Slacking Off
  • Dialogue. Straight Outta Business
  • The Next Soderbergh
  • Sundance 1990
  • Sundance 1991
  • Sundance 1992
  • Dialogue. Dogs
  • Sons of Mean Streets
  • Dialogue. $26,685
  • How Low Can a Budget Go?
  • Dialogue. Shannen
  • Amongst Jerks: Rob Weiss and the Dark Side of Overnight Success
  • Toll Money
  • Hitchcock: Who Needs Him?
  • Murder Ink
  • The Odd Couple: Sundance 1994
  • In Hock and Staying There
  • Go Fiscal: Anatomy of a Back End
  • A Doc In The House
  • Dialogue. The Clerky Boys
  • Epilogue: It’s A Wonderful Life, July 4, 1995
  • Acknowledgments
  • Appendix I
  • Appendix II
  • Appendix III
  • Index
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