Margit’s Note: Fight the Power

By Margit Detweiler

(Graphic: Helen Jane Hearn/TueNight.com)

Jim Jarmusch’s quirky, black and white Stranger Than Paradise.

David Lynch’s bizarre (Dennis Hopper!) Blue Velvet.

Robert Townsend’s hilarious skewering of the movie industry, Hollywood Shuffle.

Offbeat and entirely unique, indie movies of the ‘80s were the films that fueled my early passion for cinema. The same could be said for the indie music of the ‘80s — the bands on small, independent labels that filled up our mixed tapes. We’d emblazon them with “death to corporate rock” stickers — this was when indie actually meant independently produced, instead of just being a moniker for a genre of sound or style.

That independent sensibility defined our 20s and allowed us to feel like we could be and do anything, too.

Starting this week, the Brooklyn Academy of Music is launching a series featuring some of the amazing films of the ‘80s era, dubbing it “the neglected decade” of cinema. I’m not quite sure I know anyone my age who neglected that era, though; for most of us these were the movies that inspired our creative lives.

This week we celebrate that indie spirit — the music, movies and people who inspired our lives.

• Maura laments the indie label
• Jenny remembers her first small films
• Neil discusses Do The Right Thing
• Cheryl hates on hair bands
• Kathleen passes R.E.M. love to her son
• Jeanine honors her independent aunt
• And I interview the world’s first sex columnist for the second time

Stay solo,

Margit

p.s. we’re on vacation next week, so we’ll be back with our next new issue 7/28!