Introduction

Independent cinema is generally seen as the practice of filmmaking outside an established or mainstream system that maintains an oppositional position or projects a creative vision against the dominant culture. In this section, authors explore the conditions of production, voices at the margins excluded from the mainstream imagination, and the link between film practice and the logic of care in film community spaces within Asia, often through a comparative, trans-Asian perspective. As most independent film productions discussed here need to navigate the structures of 21st-century neoliberal capitalism, reflections on labor, care work, and precarity continue to inform the creative practice in narrative feature films, animation, and documentary, as well as the ways in which filmmakers form networks and communities. With four chapters focusing on women filmmakers and their concerns with care, labor, class, and caste, this section underlines the importance of an intersectional feminist perspective in the study of independent film practice.