A degree of distance, industrially, from the Hollywood studio system often appears to be a necessary condition for substantial formal or socio-political departure from the dominant norms. Lower budgets and less marketing-driven filmmaking generally permit greater licence. But this can be relative. How, exactly, any individual title is marked as sufficiently different from the Hollywood mainstream to qualify as independent is subject to numerous variations explored in detail in this book. Some lean towards an ‘artistic’ form and content, merging at one end with works usually defined as ‘experimental’ or ‘avant-garde’. .
