Christine Vachon has been championing "off-beat" (let's not use the term "indie;" after you read the exerpt from her new book you will know why) film projects for more than a decade. From Kids, to Happiness, to Dottie Gets Spanked, she knows from which she speaks. Filmmakers of all stripes, you should pick up her book now for wisdom like this:

"And trust me, "independently financing" a film only makes my job harder. But guarding a filmmaker's autonomy and agency—to tell unconventional stories, to cast the right actress not the star, to reject studio notes, to cut a third out of the movie right before the delivery date — is everything, since those values are what make film an art form and not just entertainment..." Each of her own productions, she writes, "'can be somebody's favorite movie because of its clarity of vision, because of the distinctiveness of what it's saying. It's that distinctiveness that allows somebody to say, Yes, this is singular and it relates to my life in this particular way.. [If] real creativity is allowed to get what it wants, that is independent film: the freedom of the vision behind it." (Movie City Indie)