Obsessed with Independent Film Since 1976
Writer, producer, and film executive James Schamus has had about as brilliant a career in independent film as they come, and it just keeps getting better. The films he has worked on read like a list of the only films that really matter in the modern trajectory of independent cinema: The Wedding Banquet (1993), The… Read more »
Author: Rebecca Carroll
Rebecca Carroll former Editor-in-Chief of The Independent
Articles Written by Rebecca Carroll:
Q&A: Linda Goldstein Knowlton and Linda Hawkins Costigan
For most people in America, “Sesame Street” warrants no introduction. The long-running PBS program and landmark, nonprofit children’s educational organization, Sesame Workshop (renamed from Children’s Television Workshop in 2000), has been viewed in thousands of homes across the country since 1968 when it first began changing the way we look at television with its smart,… Read more »
Q&A: David Strathairn
If you’ve seen a John Sayles movie, you know who David Strathairn is. Sadly, if you’ve not seen a John Sayles movie, you’re much less likely to have ever even heard of David Strathairn. He’s one of those I-know-I’ve-seen-him-somewhere actors that every once in a blue moon will pop up in a studio film like,… Read more »
Q/A: Ryan Gosling
Ryan Gosling brought me flowers when we met for this interview on a hot Sunday in July. Our earlier scheduled meeting had gone awry, and he was feeling badly for his part in the miscommunication. I don’t mind saying that I loved the gesture or that I’m a huge fan of Gosling’s work—even before he… Read more »
Q&A: BAI LING
I am somewhat embarrassed to say that I did not know exactly why I was to meet the actress Bai Ling at Playboy Enterprise headquarters to conduct our interview for this issue. Although somewhat less embarrassed to say that neither did I know she was in the final Star Wars installment, which opened in May… Read more »
Q/A: Terrence Howard
There was one good thing about Malcolm Lee’s 1999 studio film The Best Man: Terrence Howard. I wrote a review of the film for Africana.com (now Blackvoices.com) in which I said just that. I got lots of emails from angry black men because I likened the film to an R&B video (and I’d say it… Read more »
Q/A: Luke Wilson
Sometimes my friend Laura Donovan will call me out of the blue and just say these two words: “Macaw! Macaw!” Circa 1997, Laura told me about a small “independent” film called Bottle Rocket (An “independent” film? Fascinating. Do go on.) The film (which gained recognition almost entirely by word of mouth after its Columbia Pictures… Read more »
Q/A: Tamara E. Robinson
Rebecca Carroll: Where are we with public television? What do people—both those who are watching and not watching—need to know about public television now that’s different from 10 years ago? Tamara E. Robinson: Perhaps the most important thing to underscore is something often taken for granted: Public television is free of charge, and available to… Read more »
Spik(e)ing The Indie Film Punch
I met Spike Lee for the first time in the fall of 1989 at the University of New Hampshire, where I’d recently transferred from, at an event in his honor hosted by the Black Student Union. Do the Right Thing had come out the summer before, and I was sufficiently amped up about asking him… Read more »