Raindance intern Natasha Carlos shares her all-time top 10 Indie Films.

IBrick (Rian Johnson 2005)
Buy the movie HERE
It is the perfect modern day noir mystery with wit and of course, fist fighting and drug dealing. Plus, scenes of it were shot at my fellow intern Katherine Water’s high school.

Fetten Jahre sind vorbei, Die / The Edukators (Hans Weingartner 2004)
Buy the movie HERE
A big “fuck off” to the upper crust, this film follows three young revolutionaries as they break into the homes of the rich to rearrange their furniture as a warning that they have too much money.

Mysterious Skin (Gregg Araki 2004)
Buy the movie HERE
This film will definitely give you the creeps and be hard to sit through at times… but it is worth sticking through. The film gives an honest and bizarre depiction of the aftermath of child molestation through two teenagers who had the same childhood trauma.

City of God (Fernando Meirelles 2003)
Buy the movie HERE
This film is a dangerously honest depiction of a favela (shantytown) outside of Rio de Janeiro called “Cidade de Deus.” Two childhood friends form this area chose different paths in life, one a photographer and one a drug dealer. The film shows the struggle to escape what holds us back while remaining connected to it through our loved ones.

The Believer (Henry Bean 2001)
Buy the movie HERE
The Believer tells the story of a Neo-Nazi Jew who struggles to find a middle ground between his ancestry and his personal beliefs. The internal struggling and self-loathing makes this film stand out against similar themed films.

Good Bye Lenin!(Wolfgang Becker 2003)
Buy the movie HERE
After causing his mother to have a heart attack when she sees him protesting the Socialist government, Alex Kerner (Daniel Brühl) constructs a false reality for his mother where East and West Germany have not yet united. He does this to prevent his mother from having another, potentially fatal, heart attack. The film is filled with humorous moments of Alex creating this false world for his mother.

The Machinist (Brad Anderson 2004)
Buy the movie HERE
This film is amazing solely based on the amount of destruction Christian Bale caused to his body to fulfill the role (not to mention he had to beef up for Batman right after this).

Donnie Darko (Richard Kelly 2001)
Buy the movie HERE
My friends and I spent a solid 6 months obsessively dissecting this film and never really came to a conclusion. I also could never really look at bunnies the same way…




 
 

Wet Hot American Summer (David Wain 2001)
Buy the movie HERE
This film brings together most of my favorite funny people. It also makes me wish I went to summer camp…

Elephant (Gus Van Sant 2003)
Buy the movie HERE
This film chronicles the chilling preparation and execution of a high school shooting done by two seemingly normal teenagers. It is calm, quiet, and beautifully shot.





  

Natasha Carlos attends American University in Washington, DC where she studies Public Communication. She is from Westfield, NJ and is at Raindance for the summer of 2008. When she grows up she wants to work in PR on film.