‘Poverty Row’: proof that independent cinema has always been fighting an uphill battle
The challenges of independent filmmaking have never been more prominent, with directors such as the late David Lynch, Sofia Coppola and Mike Leigh discussing the hostile climate towards creativity and the uphill battle of taking a project off the ground. There are some who just about find a way to make it work, with Sofia Coppola discussing how she debated auctioning off an afternoon with Jacob Elordi in order to gain the funds for an extra shoot day. While it sounds comical, it represents something far more insidious in the industry, with even established directors who cannot find enough money for their projects, let alone emerging filmmakers who do not have substantial budgets or famous parents to help launch their careers.
However, there used to be an era in which films were able to thrive on smaller budgets and were praised for doing so, with the likes of the mumblecore movement that revolutionised the industry and made filmmaking more accessible. Directors like Sean Baker and Kelly Reichardt have been able to thrive on the creative freedom offered to them by choosing to remain independent, managing to avoid the greedy clutches of the studios that try to commercialise and sanitise their work to appeal to mass audiences.
But while these current filmmakers hold a torch of hope for the art of low-budget and indie filmmaking, there was one particular era that perhaps paved the way for this to be possible, often described as ‘poverty row’.
During the Great Depression, many small Hollywood studios created B-movies on extremely low budgets, which were given the nickname ’poverty row’. These films typically had a lower production value, were made at rented facilities, and had a tight schedule. While they were often overshadowed by the projects made at bigger studios, they later found a new audience through their creative innovation and endearing handmade quality.
While you’d perhaps imagine that A-list actors didn’t star in these films, actors such as Humphrey Bogart, Fay Wray, Erich von Stroheim and Sterling Holloway starred in many of these projects, working to make filmmaking more economical and adopting a ‘less is more’ approach.
There are many great films from this era that are criminally overlooked, such as Back Page, Woman in the Dark and Midnight (also known as Call it Murder). The latter, directed in 1934 by Chester Erskin, is perhaps one of the most prominent from this persuasion, starring Humphrey Bogart and Sidney Fox. The movie follows a jury foreman who is caught in a sticky situation when his daughter Stella admits to having committed murder.
While many of the films from this era have been lost, there has been an active effort to restore them and share the power of inventive stories that prove you don’t need huge studio-level budgets to make a great movie. Despite being over-shadowed by the nearby studio lots who had more funding at their disposal, they have continued to exist as a calling card for current independent filmmakers who work outside the box to bring their visions to life, showing that our labours of love can be realised, even if slightly more challenging.
