Category Archives: Independent Films

New Doc Digs Into the Spectacular Failure of Exorcist II

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After Point Blank and Deliverance made him a bankable name, John Boorman got the gig of a lifetime: directing the sequel to The Exorcist for Warner Brothers. What followed became one of Hollywood’s most legendary disasters, a bomb so complete it nearly killed his career and changed how studios greenlit projects.

Now there’s a documentary about it. Boorman and the Devil, directed by David Kittredge, pulls Boorman himself out of retirement to talk about what went wrong, along with Linda Blair, Louise Fletcher, and filmmakers like Karyn Kusama, Mike Flanagan, and Joe Dante. The film digs into the wreckage, but it’s not a hit piece. It’s about ambition, risk-taking, and what happens when artists swing for the fences and miss.

Critics are calling it riveting, funny, and surprisingly poignant. IndieWire said it’s “magical” and “dazzling.” The Wall Street Journal called it “altogether fascinating.” Even Time Out weighed in: this doc “exorcises the demons of cinema’s biggest film failures.”

It’s available now on Prime, Apple, Google Play, and Fandango. For indie filmmakers, it’s a reminder that failure’s part of the deal, and sometimes the most interesting stories come from the biggest crashes.

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Blind Paralympian Attempts 3,600-Mile Solo Bike Ride in New Doc ‘Blind AF’

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A blind Army veteran is about to do something nobody thought possible.

Shawn Cheshire, a 13-time U.S. National Champion in paracycling, rode a single, non-tandem bicycle 3,600 miles across America in 60 straight days. Completely blind. New documentary Blind AF chronicles the entire journey.

Directed by Gina LeVay Goldstein, the film follows Cheshire’s historic cross-country ride, but it’s really a story about trauma and healing. Cheshire lost her sight in 2009 after a brain injury while working as a paramedic. She was 36, an Army vet, a single mom of two. Depression hit hard. Treatment at a VA hospital, including adaptive sports and therapy for Complex PTSD, helped her rebuild.

By 2016, she was competing at the Rio Paralympics. She went on to set a world record as the first blind person to cross the Grand Canyon without a sighted guide.

“This film goes beyond the epic athletic achievement,” Goldstein says. “It’s a story about healing, transformation, and the power of vulnerability.”

The doc mixes vérité footage, journal entries, and immersive sound design to put you inside Cheshire’s world. Executive produced by five-time Emmy winner Jeff Zimbalist, Blind AF premiered at Geena Davis’s Bentonville Film Festival and won Best of Fest at the 2025 Sedona International Film Festival.

It drops October 28 on Amazon Prime, AppleTV, Tubi, Roku, YouTube, and Documentary+. For indie filmmakers tackling real stories, this is what it looks like when grit meets craft.

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Robot Abraham Lincoln Comic Sells Out Three Issues in a Row

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A comic about a depressed robot Abe Lincoln searching for meaning after humanity goes extinct is flying off shelves. Image Comics is rushing the first three issues of *If Destruction Be Our Lot* back to print after all three sold out at the distributor level.

The series comes from co-writers Matthew Rosenberg (*We’re Taking Everyone Down With Us*, *4 Kids Walk Into A Bank*) and Mark Elijah Rosenberg (*Approaching the Unknown*, *Year Million*), with art by Andy MacDonald (*Doctor Strange*, *Wonder Woman*), colors by Francesco Segala, and letters by Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou.

“I think we all wildly underestimated how much people like robot Abe Lincoln,” said Rosenberg.

The story follows Abe, a robotic replicant of Abraham Lincoln, who believes there’s more to existence than the daily grind. With humanity extinct, robots have taken over and are perfectly content doing their jobs without interference. But Abe isn’t satisfied. He’s convinced there’s something beyond the city limits, and he’s willing to risk getting recycled to find it.

All three reprints hit shops September 2 with new cover art by MacDonald. Issue #4 drops August 19.

This matters because indie creators are proving readers want weird, original ideas over the same superhero retreads.

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Emmy Winner Minos Papas Unleashes Folk Horror “Motherwitch” at Fantasia

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By Armando

motherwitchEmmy-winning filmmaker Minos Papas is bringing his psychological horror “Motherwitch” to Fantasia Film Festival on July 30th for its North American premiere.

The film follows Eleni, a painter in 1882 Cyprus who tries to resurrect her dead children but instead awakens the Kalikantzari, creatures from Cypriot folklore. Now she has to fight both grief and a curse threatening her village.

“Motherwitch” sold out its world premiere at International Film Festival Rotterdam and has been making the rounds at EFM Market, Guadalajara, Transilvania, BIFAN, and Galway Film Fleadh. After Fantasia, it heads to Croatia, Brazil’s Festival Filmes Incriveis, and Fantasy FilmFest Germany.

Papas shot the film between Los Angeles and Cyprus, drawing on years spent listening to bereaved parents, healers, and war veterans. The result is what he calls a love letter to Cyprus, its mythology and landscape woven into every frame.

The director, known for “Shutterbug” and “Tango on the Balcony,” also produced “Take Me Home,” which premiered at Sundance 2026 and screened at Berlinale and Tribeca.

“Motherwitch” is a co-production between Cyprus, North Macedonia, Canada, and the USA. B Rated International is handling sales.

For indie horror fans who love atmospheric folklore films, this one’s worth tracking down.

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“The Town That Takes” Brings the Roanoke Mystery to Theaters This July

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The-Town-That-TakesA supernatural horror thriller built around one of America’s oldest unsolved mysteries is heading to theaters next month.

Atlas Distribution Company picked up festival favorite “The Town That Takes” and will release it in select theaters across the top 20 North American markets starting July 10. The film takes the only clue left behind after the Lost Colony of Roanoke vanished in 1590, a single carved word, CROATOAN, and imagines a terrifying answer.

Director Britt Bankhead, who co-wrote the screenplay with Jon Blaze, stars alongside Miles Mussenden (Doom Patrol), Mike Markoff (Hit Man), and Grace Patterson (Slotherhouse). The story follows Dean Richardson, a troubled Army vet trying to reconnect with his estranged 12-year-old son after his ex-wife’s death. When they stop in a remote town haunted by whispers of Croatoan, a brutal murder puts Dean in the spotlight and his son suddenly disappears.

What starts as a murder investigation turns into something far more sinister as unexplained deaths and impossible encounters pile up across the region.

“Britt Bankhead took one of the oldest unsolved mysteries in American history and built a supernatural thriller that gets under your skin,” said Harmon Kaslow, President of Atlas Distribution.

For indie horror filmmakers, this is another example of festival buzz translating into theatrical distribution, proof the theatrical market for genre films remains alive.

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Two Indies Take Home Tribeca Awards for Screenplay and Cinematography

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Tribeca handed out some major wins to the indie world this year. ZEJTUNE, a Maltese drama directed by Alex Camilleri, won Best Screenplay in the International Narrative Feature category. THE SIEGE OF PARADISE, a documentary from Irish filmmaker Gar O’Rourke, earned a Special Jury Mention for Best Cinematography.

ZEJTUNE follows Mar, a woman who returns to Malta after her estranged mother’s death, planning to sell inherited farmland and leave for good. Instead, she meets Nenu, an 80-year-old folk singer whose music pulls her back toward the island she wanted to escape. The film is a co-production between Malta, Germany, and Qatar, produced by Oliver Mallia, Ramin Bahrani, and Camilleri himself.

THE SIEGE OF PARADISE takes a sharp, funny look at Cinque Terre, where fewer than 3,000 locals deal with over four million tourists every summer. The doc follows six lives across one chaotic season, exposing what happens when social media driven tourism crushes a small Italian paradise.

Both films prove that strong storytelling and vision still cut through, even in a crowded festival landscape. For indie filmmakers grinding through the circuit, these wins matter.

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Gidi Dar’s Hasidic Comedy “The Wedding Entertainer” Premieres at Tribeca

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A disgraced Jewish wedding comedian fights to save his reputation and marry off his daughter in “The Wedding Entertainer (The Tale of Moishe Badhan),” making its world premiere at Tribeca Festival next month.

Director Gidi Dar (“Ushpizin,” “Legend of Destruction”) brings together Shuli Rand and “Curb Your Enthusiasm” star Elon Gold in what’s billed as a hilarious caper set in Jerusalem’s Hasidic community. Rand plays Moishe Striker, a former Badchan (a traditional Hasidic wedding MC and comedian) who lost everything to addiction. Now he needs one last gig to raise $20,000 for his daughter’s wedding.

The setup gets messy fast. Moishe convinces his childhood friend to let him co-host a ceremony alongside Meshulam (Gold), a younger, flashier performer already hired for the job. When the two Badchans clash, the whole thing spirals.

Malky Goldman from “Unorthodox” plays Moishe’s daughter, Sarah-Leah. Tal Friedman rounds out the cast.

The film screens June 4 at Village East by Angelika in New York. It’s a rare spotlight on a specific cultural tradition that doesn’t often make it to festival circuits, giving indie audiences something genuinely fresh.

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Black-and-White Jazz Musical ‘Airport BLVD’ Heads to Tribeca Competition

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airport-blvdA black-and-white musical about gentrification and belonging in East Austin is heading to the U.S. Narrative Competition at Tribeca 2026.

Airport BLVD follows Xavier as his neighborhood, friendships, and sense of home slowly vanish around him. Writer-director Alejandro Hendricks shot the film in luminous black-and-white with an original jazz score, centering Black creative lives in a city rarely shown from this perspective onscreen.

The film tackles displacement, intimacy, ambition, and what happens when a city transforms faster than the people who made it home. It’s a love letter to East Austin, old and new, caught in that bittersweet space between memory and evolution.

The cast includes Jamal Gamble, Toluwani, Kenny Duet, Mor Cohen, Matthew Graham Wagner, and Azeem Williams. Brannin Webber, Jamal Gamble, and Trai Wade produced.

Airport BLVD world premieres June 5 at 6:15 PM at Village East Theater by Angelika, with additional screenings June 6 and 10.

For indie filmmakers tackling gentrification and cultural erasure, this one hits close to home. Austin’s transformation has pushed out countless artists and communities of color. Hendricks is putting that story, and those faces, front and center.

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Mexican Director Fernanda Tovar’s “Sad Girlz” Brings Double Berlinale Win to Tribeca

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Sad-GirlzFernanda Tovar’s debut feature is heading to New York with serious momentum. “Sad Girlz” (Chicas tristes) will make its North American premiere at Tribeca Festival next month after sweeping Berlin’s Generation 14plus section with both the Crystal Bear and the Grand Prix.

The Mexico City-set drama follows Paula and La Maestra, two 16-year-old competitive swimmers training for the Junior Pan American Championship. After a party where Paula is left alone with a longtime crush, something shifts. She becomes withdrawn. Her best friend pushes for answers. As Paula slowly shares what happened, neither girl can fully name the experience or its weight.

What starts as an unbreakable bond begins to fracture under the pressure of fear, guilt, and anger. Tovar captures how teenage friendship can become both refuge and battlefield when trauma enters the frame.

Produced by Colectivo Colmena, the film recently added another prize at Cartagena Film Festival. Tovar’s shorts have played Cannes Critics’ Week and Morelia, but this marks her most ambitious work yet.

“Sad Girlz” screens June 4-12 at Tribeca, with its North American premiere on June 4 at 5:15pm at Village East by Angelika. For indie filmmakers watching, it’s a reminder that intimate, emotionally precise storytelling still cuts through.

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Alice Eve Faces Sharks and Secrets in Malta Thriller ‘CHUM’

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chumA destination wedding goes sideways when a great white shows up uninvited. CHUM, starring Alice Eve, hits theaters and VOD on June 5 from Independent Film Company.

The premise is simple but effective. A wedding party in Malta gets ambushed by a bloodthirsty shark and a fisherman with his own twisted plans. Trapped between open water and a human threat, the group has to figure out who to trust while fighting to stay alive. The newlyweds, meanwhile, are forced to confront whether their relationship can survive the chaos.

Eve, known for Star Trek Into Darkness and recent indie thrillers like Cult Killer, leads the cast. Jonathan Zuck directs from a script he co-wrote with Joe Leone. The ensemble includes Eric Michael Cole, Elle Haymond, and Sarah Siadat.

IFC is giving this one a day-and-date release, meaning it’ll be available in theaters and at home simultaneously. The 87-minute runtime suggests a lean, no-filler approach, which is exactly what a survival thriller needs.

For indie filmmakers and genre fans, CHUM is a reminder that you don’t need a massive budget to deliver tension. A smart concept, a solid cast, and a killer location can go a long way.

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