Indie Cinema and the Neoliberal Commodification of Creative Labor: Rethinking the Indie Sensibility of Christopher Nolan

In the 2000s there was a notable movement of directors between the indie and studio sectors. This followed a perceived "depoliticization" of indie cinema and coincided with a reiteration of the concept of the "auteur" in trade and industry discourses. This chapter argues that these three tendencies can be seen to be interconnected when viewed within the framework of neoliberalism. Using Christopher Nolan as a case study, it explores the neoliberal commodification of creative labor as it relates to "indie sensibility" and the discourses that sustained it. The independent-studio filmmaking continuum has provided various means by which independent and indie cinema can be defined both in academic and industry discourses. The concept of neoliberalism is employed in both the economic and the ideological sense. The central tenets of neoliberalism are deregulation, privatization, de-unionization of the labor force, and the dismantling of the welfare state.