The seventh month of the year is underway and there are more great indie films on the horizon for those who love this genre.
The Neon Demon
So far, 2016 has been another great year for indie films and they are a welcome break from the blockbusters during the summer season.
We take a look at some of the indie films that are set to hit the big screen over the coming weeks and there's plenty to watch out for and be excited about. We take a look at some of the films that we are looking forward to the most.
- Notes On Blindness - released 1st July
If you are looking for a documentary this July, Notes On Blindness could well be the film that you are looking for.
The movie sees Pete Middleton and James Spinney team up in the director's chair as they both make their feature film directorial debut. The duo introduced us to John Hull's story in a 2014 short film and they have now expanded that into a feature film.
In the early 1980s, after decades of steady deterioration, writer, and academic John Hull lost his sight. To help him make sense of the ensuing upheaval in his life, he began to keep an audio diary.
Across three years, he created over 16 hours of material; these recordings would form a unique testimony of loss, rebirth, and renewal, excavating the interior world of blindness.
Notes on Blindness is set to be a touching and powerful documentary and unlike any other feature film that we have seen in this genre this year.
- Maggie's Plan - released 8th July
Rebecca Miller is one of the female filmmakers to watch out for this summer as she returns to the director's chair with her latest film Maggie's Plan.
So far, this summer has been packed with exciting female directed films and Maggie's Plan is the latest that's not to be missed this month. As well as being in the director's chair, Miller has also penned the film's screenplay, which is based on an original story by Karen Rinaldi.
Miller has brought us movies such as Personal Velocity and The Ballad of Jack and Rose and it is her first feature since The Private Lives of Pippa Lee back in 2009.
Greta Gerwig takes on the central role of Maggie and is joined on the cast list by Ethan Hawke, Bill Hader, May Rudolph, and Travis Fimmel.
The film follows Maggie, a vibrant and practical thirty-something New Yorker working at the New School who, without success in finding love, decides now is the time to have a child of her own. But when she meets John Harding (Hawke), a 'ficto-critical anthropologist- and struggling novelist, Maggie falls in love for the first time and adjusts her plans for motherhood. Complicating matters, John is in a strained marriage with Georgette Norgaard (Moore), a brilliant Danish academic.
With a Greek chorus of Maggie's eccentric and hilarious best friends Tony and Felicia (Hader and Rudolph) observing wryly from the sidelines, Maggie sets into motion a new plan that catapults her into a nervy love triangle with John and Georgette, intertwining their lives and connecting them in surprising and humorous new ways. Maggie learns that sometimes destiny should be left to its own devices.
Maggie's Plan has been playing well on the festival circuit having been screened at the Toronto International Film Festival, New York Film Festival, Sundance Film Festival and Berlin International Film Festival, where it has been met well by the critics.
- The Neon Demon - released 8th July
Nicolas Winding Refn is one of the most exciting and off the wall filmmakers around and he is back in the director's chair this summer with his new film The Neon Demon.
Refn has brought us movies such as Pusher, Bronson, and Drive during his career and The Neon Demon is his first feature since Only God Forgives three years ago. As well as being in the director's chair, Refn has also penned the film's screenplay.
The movie sees Elle Fanning take on the central role of aspiring model Jesse and this is the first time that the actress has worked with the filmmaker.
Refn has a knack of bringing together a great cast list and The Neon Demon continues that trend; Christina Hendricks, Keanu Reeves, Jena Malone, Bella Heathcote, and Abbey Lee will all star alongside Fanning.
When aspiring model Jesse moves to Los Angeles, her youth and vitality are devoured by a group of beauty-obsessed women who will use any means necessary to get what she has.
The Neon Demon was a movie that split critics and audiences at the Cannes Film Festival last month, where it competed for the prestigious Palme d'Or. It is sure to divide opinion when it is finally released but it will be unlike anything else that you will see this summer. But dividing opinion is something that Refn does best.
- The Hard Stop - released 15th July
Another documentary that is not to be missed this July is the hard-hitting British film The Hard Stop.
George Amponsah is back in the director's chair and he is no stranger to the documentary genre, having brought us films such as Diaspora Calling and The Fighting Spirit.
The Hard Stop is an intimate documentary revealing the story, away from all press coverage, of Mark Duggan's friends and family following his death. He was shot and killed in a 'Hard Stop' police procedure in 2011, sparking the most violent riots in British history.
For 28 months, director George Amponsah (The Fighting Spirit) filmed around Broadwater Farm in Tottenham, where Duggan grew up, capturing his family's distress and focusing on two of his best friends, Marcus Knox, and Kurtis Henville.
We follow the men closely as they attempt to get on with their lives, look for a job, talk about the discrimination they experience on a daily basis and the impact Duggan's death has had on the community. Duggan is present throughout, in peoples' testimonies and news broadcasts. What emerges is a profoundly humane, thought-provoking and topical testament, which gives a voice to people who are rarely heard.
The Hard Stop has played at the BFI London Film Festival and Toronto International Film Festival and is set to be a very sincere but hard-hitting documentary that's not to be missed.
- The Commune - released 29th July
We haven't seen Thomas Vinterberg in the director's chair since the success of Far from the Madding Crowd last year and now he is back with his latest project The Commune.
Vinterberg is an exciting filmmaker and he has delivered movies such as The Hunt and Submarino in recent years - it is great to see him back. As well as being in the director's chair, Vinterberg has also teamed up with Tobias Lindholm to pen the film's screenplay.
The Commune reunites Danish director Thomas Vinterberg with scriptwriter Tobias Lindholm (The Hunt, A Hijacking) in a story that focuses on the clash between personal desires versus the solidarity and tolerance in a commune in the mid-1970s.
Ulrich Thomsen, Trine Dyrholm, Fares Fares, and Julie Agnete Vang lead the cast in and are set to turn in some exciting performances.
Vinterberg is an exciting filmmaker and I am looking forward to seeing what he delivers with his latest movie.
