independent films – The Parallax Review

Binge-Worthy #9: Another Day In Paradise (Larry Clark, 1998)

Larry Clark’s second feature film portrays the highs and lows of life on the margins from an insider’s perspective.

Binge-Worthy #7: The Learning Tree (Gordon Parks, 1969)

Gordon Parks’s semi-autobiographical coming-of-age movie The Learning Tree explores complex social and racial issues in ways that continue to resonate.

Binge-Worthy #5½: I Need A Ride To California (Morris Engel, 1968)

On the heels of The Little Fugitive, we take a look at Morris Engel’s long-lost, recently restored 1968 feature film, which chronicles the experiences of a free-spirited young woman immersed in the East Village counterculture scene.

Binge-Worthy #5: The Little Fugitive (Morris Engel and Ruth Orkin, 1953)

At the start of the 1950s, Photo League members Morris Engel and Ruth Orkin made a low-budget independent feature called The Little Fugitive using a small, custom-built portable 35mm camera. Their unassuming and charming debut as filmmakers went on to have an unexpected and considerable influence on the film world.

Binge-Worthy #2: Candy Mountain (Robert Frank, 1987)

Candy Mountain, a low-budget independent feature from the mid-1980s that Robert Frank co-directed, easily ranks among his most significant filmmaking achievements. It’s a deeply personal work etched with social commentary that drives home just how much, in the wake of The Americans, Frank strove to distance himself from that career-defining body of work. It’s also his most mainstream project, and one that he ultimately deemed a failure.