Introduction -- Independent of what? sorting out differences from hollywood / Janet Staiger -- "Independent", "Indie" and "Indiewood": towards a periodisation of contemporary (post-1980) American independent cinema / Yannis Tzioumakis -- Thriving or in permanent crisis? Discourses on the state of indie cinema / Geoff King -- Quirky: buzzword or sensibility? / James MacDowell -- Movies for Hipsters / Michael Z. Newman -- Discerning independents: Steven Soderbergh and transhistorical taste cultures / Mark Gallagher -- Their own personal velocity: women directors and contemporary independent cinema / Michele Schreiber -- Last indie standing: the special case of Lions Gate in the new millennium / Alisa Perren -- Conglomerate Hollywood and American independent film / Thomas Schatz -- Reputational capital, creative conflict and Hollywood independence: the case of Hal Ashby / Philip Drake -- The limits of autonomy: Stanley Kubrick, Hollywood and independent filmmaking, 1950-53 / Peter Krämer -- Independent nature: wildlife films between Hollywood and indiewood / Claire Molloy -- In Hollywood, but not of Hollywood: independent Christian filmmaking / James Russell -- Welcome to the (neo) grindhouse! sex, violence and the indie film / Sarah Wharton -- Faux feal? C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America as the response to The Birth of a Nation / Novotny Lawrence -- Measuring online word-of-mouth: the initial reception of Inland Empire (2006) on the Web / Warren Buckland.