Top 5 Inspirational Independent Directors

Independent filmmakers have no shortage of role models in the entertainment industry. Some have gone on to massive commercial success, others - like Herk Harvey - only ever produced one film. For the aspiring filmmaker, here are five independent directors whose careers serve as inspiration on your path to independent cinema glory.

5. Oscar Micheaux

Oscar Micheaux's name isn't tossed around much these days, but the fact is that he made his films at a time when an independent film producer was almost unheard of - let alone a black independent film producer. After talks with the African-American owned Lincoln Motion Picture Company fell through, Micheaux began production on his own film adaptation of his novel, The Homesteader. Financed by a handful of white businessmen and a large number of black farmers around Sioux City, Iowa, the film came in at eight reels making it the first feature length film produced and directed by a black artist in the United States. In fact, it even pre-dated Charlie Chaplin's first feature film, The Kid, which was produced in 1921.

Micheaux continued on to produce more than 30 films, including Within Our Gates, a 1920 response to D.W. Griffith's Birth of a Nation. He produced musicals, comedies, westerns, and romances, casting his films from New York's Lafayette Players. As an early independent film director, he worked to produce films that reflected and served his community and paved the way for other independent film producers to come.

4. Robert Rodriguez

Rodriguez lived the dream of every aspiring independent filmmaker. From his childhood watching the movies of John Carpenter, Sergio Leone, Charlie Chaplin, and Buster Keaton, Rodriguez dedicated his life to the art of filmmaking. After making a handful of shorts using his own family as cast members, his first feature production was created on a budget of $7,000 with the grand dream of selling it to a video distribution company selling to Latin American markets. Instead, he wound up selling it to Columbia Pictures.