Outsider Cinema

Filmmakers

Forty-four people who made films the industry wasn't asking for, and changed what films could be anyway.

By year of birth

  1. Viking Eggeling 1880⁠–⁠1925 · Absolute film and Visual music
  2. Germaine Dulac 1882⁠–⁠1942 · French Impressionist cinema and Surrealism
  3. Walter Ruttmann 1887⁠–⁠1941 · Absolute film and City symphony
  4. Hans Richter 1888⁠–⁠1976 · Absolute film and Dada
  5. Oskar Fischinger 1900⁠–⁠1967 · Visual music, Abstract animation and Absolute film
  6. Luis Buñuel 1900⁠–⁠1983 · Surrealism and Mexican cinema
  7. Len Lye 1901⁠–⁠1980 · Direct animation and Kinetic sculpture
  8. Mary Ellen Bute 1906⁠–⁠1983 · Visual music and Abstract animation
  9. Marie Menken 1909⁠–⁠1970 · New American Cinema and Underground film
  10. Norman McLaren 1914⁠–⁠1987 · Direct animation and Pixilation
  11. Maya Deren 1917⁠–⁠1961 · Trance film and Screendance
  12. Jonas Mekas 1922⁠–⁠2019 · Diary film and New American Cinema
  13. Sergei Parajanov 1924⁠–⁠1990 · Ukrainian poetic cinema
  14. Ed Emshwiller 1925⁠–⁠1990 · Cine-dance and Video art
  15. William Greaves 1926⁠–⁠2014 · Cinéma vérité
  16. Kenneth Anger 1927⁠–⁠2023 · Underground film and Queer cinema
  17. Věra Chytilová 1929⁠–⁠2014 · Czech New Wave and Feminist film
  18. Jack Smith 1932⁠–⁠1989 · Underground film and Queer cinema
  19. Toshio Matsumoto 1932⁠–⁠2017 · Queer cinema and Video art
  20. Stan Brakhage 1933⁠–⁠2003 · Lyrical film and Hand-made film
  21. Bruce Conner 1933⁠–⁠2008 · Found footage and Assemblage
  22. Jan Švankmajer b. 1934 · Surrealism and Stop-motion
  23. Arthur Lipsett 1936⁠–⁠1986 · Collage film and Found footage
  24. Barbara Hammer 1939⁠–⁠2019 · Queer cinema and Feminist film
  25. Pat O'Neill b. 1939 · Optical printing and Found footage
  26. Tony Conrad 1940⁠–⁠2016 · Structural film and Flicker film
  27. The Kuchars b. 1942 (George d. 2011) · Underground film and No-budget film
  28. Paul Sharits 1943⁠–⁠1993 · Flicker film and Structural film
  29. Djibril Diop Mambéty 1945⁠–⁠1998 · Senegalese cinema
  30. Cecelia Condit b. 1947 · Video art and Feminist fairy tale
  31. Chantal Akerman 1950⁠–⁠2015 · Slow cinema and Structural film
  32. Phil Solomon 1954⁠–⁠2019 · Found footage and Optical printing
  33. Takashi Ito b. 1956 · Structural film and Stop-motion
  34. Matthew Barney b. 1967 · Video art and Performance art
  35. Deborah Stratman b. 1967 · Essay film and Landscape film
  36. Ben Rivers b. 1972 · Photochemical film
  37. Don Hertzfeldt b. 1976 · Hand-drawn animation and Independent animation
  38. Alexandre Larose b. 1978 · Photochemical film and Superimposition
  39. Giuseppe Andrews b. 1979 · Underground film and No-budget film
  40. Kris Straub b. 1979 · Analog horror
  41. Jodie Mack b. 1983 · Stop-motion, Visual music and Experimental animation
  42. Scott Barley b. 1992 · Slow cinema and Landscape film
  43. Jim Trainor Birth year unknown · Hand-drawn animation and Experimental animation
  44. Kyle Edward Ball Birth year unknown · No-budget film and Slow cinema