Rob Stone is Emeritus Professor in Film Studies at the University of Birmingham. His research interests are in the dynamics of World Cinema, Hispanic cinemas and American independent cinema, with particular emphasis on the relations between aesthetics, politics, and philosophy. His publications include The Cinema of Richard Linklater: Walk, Don’t Run (2013; 2nd edition 2018) and Lady Bird: Self-Determination for a New Century (2022). He also co-edits The Routledge Companion to World Cinema (2017; 2nd edition 2027) and is a filmmaker and video essayist.

Imagined Life offers readers a beautifully intricate, historically and philosophically grounded, study of American independent cinema. By locating the praxis of this much-debated film culture in the ethos of Transcendentalism, Rob Stone has re-animated its discourse with welcome wonder, and indeed, imaginative understanding.

• List of illustrations Acknowledgements Introduction: This Manner of Looking at Things1. Transcendentalism: New Nation, New Philosophy2. Spirit and Discourse: American Independent Cinema3. Busy Minimalism: Intimacy, Detail, and Duration4. American Homeland: Nature and Destiny5. American Wasteland: Nature and Deprivation6. Double-Consciousness: Black American Filmmaking7. Divine Energy: Woman in the Twenty-First CenturyConclusion: The Direction of Your DreamsBibliographyIndex

Rob Stone is Emeritus Professor in Film Studies at the University of Birmingham. His research interests are in the dynamics of World Cinema, Hispanic cinemas and American independent cinema, with particular emphasis on the relations between aesthetics, politics, and philosophy. His publications include The Cinema of Richard Linklater: Walk, Don’t Run (2013; 2nd edition 2018) and Lady Bird: Self-Determination for a New Century (2022). He also co-edits The Routledge Companion to World Cinema (2017; 2nd edition 2027) and is a filmmaker and video essayist.

Imagined Life offers readers a beautifully intricate, historically and philosophically grounded, study of American independent cinema. By locating the praxis of this much-debated film culture in the ethos of Transcendentalism, Rob Stone has re-animated its discourse with welcome wonder, and indeed, imaginative understanding.

• List of illustrations Acknowledgements Introduction: This Manner of Looking at Things1. Transcendentalism: New Nation, New Philosophy2. Spirit and Discourse: American Independent Cinema3. Busy Minimalism: Intimacy, Detail, and Duration4. American Homeland: Nature and Destiny5. American Wasteland: Nature and Deprivation6. Double-Consciousness: Black American Filmmaking7. Divine Energy: Woman in the Twenty-First CenturyConclusion: The Direction of Your DreamsBibliographyIndex

Rob Stone is Emeritus Professor in Film Studies at the University of Birmingham. His research interests are in the dynamics of World Cinema, Hispanic cinemas and American independent cinema, with particular emphasis on the relations between aesthetics, politics, and philosophy. His publications include The Cinema of Richard Linklater: Walk, Don’t Run (2013; 2nd edition 2018) and Lady Bird: Self-Determination for a New Century (2022). He also co-edits The Routledge Companion to World Cinema (2017; 2nd edition 2027) and is a filmmaker and video essayist.

Imagined Life offers readers a beautifully intricate, historically and philosophically grounded, study of American independent cinema. By locating the praxis of this much-debated film culture in the ethos of Transcendentalism, Rob Stone has re-animated its discourse with welcome wonder, and indeed, imaginative understanding.

• List of illustrations Acknowledgements Introduction: This Manner of Looking at Things1. Transcendentalism: New Nation, New Philosophy2. Spirit and Discourse: American Independent Cinema3. Busy Minimalism: Intimacy, Detail, and Duration4. American Homeland: Nature and Destiny5. American Wasteland: Nature and Deprivation6. Double-Consciousness: Black American Filmmaking7. Divine Energy: Woman in the Twenty-First CenturyConclusion: The Direction of Your DreamsBibliographyIndex