Independence and Innovation: Indie Film and the Youth Market

Abstract

“Odd things always happen when the power goes out,” comments writer/director Fernando Eimbcke, reflecting with nostalgia on the moment that inspired his screenplay. A power outage is a moment of experiential simplicity, one that becomes the central rite of passage into adulthood in the film Temporada de patos. “I remember when I was younger, we were in the living room watching television and all of a sudden we were sitting there in the dark, silent, with nowhere to go. So we started to talk and tell stories. It turned into a really special experience” (cited in press kit, 2004). The film’s publicity materials, creating playful intrigue with the idea of what one can do to pass the time during a blackout (“cuando se corta la luz”), invites viewers to ponder the question that launches the storyline: Has the media conditioned today’s youth to see life in the twenty-first century as boring without electricity? This underlies another quandary, one that many filmmakers producing films outside of Hollywood are forced to ask: Is cinema too boring without special effects, flashy locations, or studio sets? Can an enjoyable film be shot with only available light? Can it be produced without power?