‘Miramax, Sundance, and the Rise of Independent Film…’
The rise and fall of disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein is perhaps the single most significant event to occur in Hollywood since the ’70s. More than any other individual, Weinstein helped to usher in the age of independent cinema in the ’90s before becoming the main antagonist in the #MeToo movement. Both of these events have shaped Hollywood to such an extent that is it now unrecognisable from the pre-Harvey Weinstein era…
Celebrated film historian Peter Biskand published Down and Dirty Pictures (subtitled: Miramax, Sundance, and the Rise of Independent Film) in 2004, many years before the accusations about Weinstein became public, and yet, the seed of the allegations are sown throughout Down and Dirty Pictures. Weinstein is portrayed as a repulsive, intimidating bully who will stop at nothing to get what he wants; a master manipulator who hides his megalomaniac behaviour behind a professed love of cinema. Biskind’s prose, always evocative, paints a particularly vivid and hateful picture of Weinstein throughout, so much so that the long sections that deal with the formation of Robert Redford’s Sundance Film Festival feel positively dull in comparison.
Whilst reading Down and Dirty Pictures through a modern lens is a bleak experience, there is also no way to surgically remove Weinstein’s influence from the so-called Indiewood movement that saw the rise of filmmakers as diverse as Spike Lee, Kevin Smith, Quentin Tarantino, Alexander Payne and many others take centre stage at the end of the millennium. Weinstein has his grubby paws all over it. It’s a fascinating read, arguably as compelling as Easy Riders, Raging Bull (Biskind’s most celebrated work) and at least as prescient.
As a child of the ’90s, I loved hearing extensive interviews with such luminaries as Matt Damon, Ben Affleck and Steven Soderbergh and the book acts as an excellent companion piece to Spike, Mike, Slackers & Dykes by John Pierson – both are essential reading for any discerning cinema fan.