What’s next for independent film? Your home TV

Including the two films playing tonight, "Child's Pose" and "Kiss the Water," the 2014 Spokane International Film Festival has five days to run. The question to consider now is … what's next for fans of anything other than mainstream cinema?

 

AMC continues to feature its "independent" series, which most lately led to Ralph Fiennes' "The Invisible Woman" opening in Spokane. But after just a single week, that film will move on. And since most movies that open at the AMC do little or no business when they move to the Magic Lantern, it's not likely to play there. Meanwhile, what is opening Friday at AMC? Jason Reitman's "Labor Day," the 20-something romantic comedy "That Awkward Moment," a "sing-along" version of "Frozen" and a 3-D IMAX return of "Gravity." 

 

One thing we can depend on — for the moment, at least — is the Magic Lantern. Beginning Friday, for example, Spokane's only art movie house will screen the 2014 Oscar-nominated Live Action Short Films. And it will continue "Philomena," "Nebraska," Knights of Badassdom" and "Blue Jasmine." On Friday, Feb. 7, the Lantern will open "Maidentrip" and the 2014 Oscar-nominated Animated Short Films.

 

In the future, though, anyone looking for anything other than the latest Kevin Hart comedy or latest CGI blockbuster likely will have to go online — to Netflix or Hulu or Amazon Prime. (Through Netflix streaming, last night I watched the Oscar-nominated Documentary Feature "The Square.")

 

So it's time to get a better TV. That's likely going to be the future of any fan of truly independent cinema. For many of us, it already is.