Kartemquin Films

Kartemquin Films is an independent film production company based in Chicago that specializes in making documentaries. Several of their movies are widely available through Netflix and one of them was even highlighted by ESPN as a part of their "30 for 30" series. The film is about former basketball star Allen Iverson's involvement in a racial altercation and how it affected the town and more specifically Iverson himself. Like most documentaries, Kartemquin's films have a strong message to get across. As Netflix labels some labels some of their films as "cerebral", it would be safe to say that the audience is intended to be smarter people. But they also appeal to those who are socially conscious and interested in sports. Other notable films are about the violence in Chicago, Muhammad Ali, stem cell research and two boys with basketball dreams. Most of these films appear in prominent film festivals like Big Sky and South by Southwest (SXSW) and are nominated for a bunch of awards. Although the majority of documentaries never attract large audiences that doesn't take away from their quality of production. 

On their website they state that they are a nonprofit organization, which is exactly the opposite of the larger media companies that basically operate to create profit. Kartemquin qualifies as an independent media outlet because they allow filmmakers with a story to tell an opportunity to document what they want the world to see. Their website details the social goals of their films. A main goal is to represent those who don't have a voice in the media, which happens to be a major disadvantage of mass communication. Kartemquin often collaborates with other independent filmmakers to create films that share the same goals "KTQ" have*. These type of collaborations are key to honoring the art of independent film making because if they do not take any outside help or contributions, they would not epitomize independent media and wouldn't be much different than the corporations at the top.

* http://kartemquin.com/involve/filmmakers/collaborate

Sergio Razta

Sergio Razta is a teenage kid from Chicago who makes videos on YouTube. Sergio’s first videos were strictly of him sitting in front of a camera ranting and raving about first world problems and teen issues. After attracting a large audience, Sergio began making skits and grew even larger on YouTube. He now has over 600,000 subscribers and travels the country to host concerts and meet fans. His audience started out being his friends and then his school, then Chicago and then it grew outwards to other cities in the United States thanks to social media. Sergio’s audience is primarily Hispanic teens since a lot of his videos have topics most relevant to Mexican-Americans and other Hispanic-Americans. Sergio’s videos are available exclusively through YouTube but Twitter is one of the main ways that his videos get shared. I found out about him on Twitter and ended up “binge watching” all of his videos one night. Sergio’s videos are reminiscent of Joel McHale’s “The Soup” where he just rants comically.

Sergio’s channel qualifies as independent media because he makes all of his videos on his own with just a camera and ideas. Although he is on YouTube, which is an extremely large outlet for media, he does not publish his videos under any large corporate ownership. Sergio started as a bored teen with a camera and turned into one of the most popular personalities on YouTube. The growth of his channel represents how successful independent media can still be. YouTube does have a knack for “mainstreaming” independent channels into the large media fields such as Timothy de la Ghetto who had a channel similar to Sergio’s and got a TV show and now appears regularly on MTV. While he does have some mainstream appeal because of his popularity, Sergio’s videos are great because they are something that anybody can make and there isn’t the barrier to entry to have a successful time doing it, that is the beautiful thing of independent media.


http://www.youtube.com/user/SergioRazta

Pitchfork Media

Pitchfork Media is a Chicago-based website focused on alternative music and tough critical reviews. Pitchfork does highlight some mainstream music but for the most part indie music is the base for Pitchfork. Pitchfork does reviews, interviews and even videos for its Pitchfork.tv segments. They have their own music festivals in Chicago and Paris. Pitchfork is not owned by any larger media company. When you visit the website there are not even any advertisements.

Ryan Schreiber created Pitchfork back in 1995. Pitchfork has always been available online since its inception. Pitchfork has been a factor in the rise of many artists such as Bon Iver and Arcade Fire. A majority of blogs on indie music have striking similarities to Pitchfork such as content and audience. That audience would be hipsters. Hipsters are those people who are too cool for the mainstream and wear beanies in the summer. The audience is important because the music on Pitchfork is indie and a general assumption of hipsters is that they only listen to bands that are not famous because hipsters are counterculture and know everything before it is cool. That type of audience is what Schreiber wanted when he began Pitchfork. He created Pitchfork to write about underground music since newspaper music reviews often neglected anything that was not mainstream music.

Pitchfork qualifies as an independent media outlet because it not only features independent artists but also because there is an entire staff of journalists and critics that operate independently of any large media conglomerate. There are no restrictions or commercial interests in the writing. Pitchfork is like a zine, a specific publication with a specific audience. The album reviews give Pitchfork notoriety. Critics have been known to be tough and even gained attention from it. While Pitchfork is widely popular now and some might consider it “mainstream”, Pitchfork still does its own thing without any dependence or conformity to a larger parent company. Pitchfork created its own little empire without actually making one.