The Journey is the Destination

For Kelly Reichardt, her cross-country roadtrips inform her creative process.

With Whiplash and the upcoming throwback musical La La Land, film-savvy director Damien Chazelle is exploring the intersection of real life and cinematic life.

No two indie directors see things in the same way, but they all have a vision. Excerpts from 10 years of stories capture their passion.

Co-directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck started working together when they were still in film school. With their latest picture, Mississippi Grind, they continue their pursuit of regional stories.

The director’s unlikely journey from a Texas border town to NYU film school, to working as an assistant to Nora Ephron and Martin Scorsese, pays off with Me and Earl and the Dying Girl.

Jill Soloway took the genre into new territory with her groundbreaking transgender series, Transparent. The content might be different, but the emotions are real.

After the success of her first film, Pariah, Dee Rees’ career is on track with a biopic about the legendary Bessie Smith—warts and all.

Steve James has captured revealing personal moments in documentaries like Hoop Dreams and The Interrupters. With a new film about Roger Ebert’s last days, he continues his exploration of lives in transition.

With carefully crafted, character-driven films like Two Lovers and the upcoming The Immigrant, Director James Gray has evoked a classical Hollywood style. And, no surprise, he prefers film to digital.

As the director of the documentary West of Memphis and now her first feature, Every Secret Thing, Amy Berg has learned to observe and let the story unfold.

As the star of her HBO series Girls, Lena Dunham has become a lightning rod for all sorts of cultural issues. But behind the camera she’s a director learning her craft.

After training as an artist, Steve McQueen has turned his camera on the struggles of life with the darkly beautiful Hunger and Shame. He continues the descent with his first American film, 12 Years a Slave.

Documentary director Les Blank has followed his eyes, ears and stomach to capture the sights and sounds of American regional culture for over 50 years. His body of work is a unique and joyous record of how people live.

Working quickly with a micro-budget and a sympathetic cast and crew, Lynn Shelton has churned out four films in four years, including her latest, Touchy Feely.

With the satirical feature In the Loop and HBO series Veep, British director Armando Iannucci proves you don’t have to be American to understand inept politicians and unctuous underlings.

With violent films such as Bronson and Drive, Nicolas Winding Refn says he’s making movies that arouse him.

Although Rodrigo Garcia has specialized in small-scale, intimate portraits of modern women, his latest film, Albert Nobbs, is a period piece set in Dublin. But for him, it's still about the story.

Danish director Susanne Bier won an Oscar for In a Better World, but her international style may be seen as too commercial in Europe and too artsy for Hollywood. The reality is somewhere in between.

After winning acclaim for his unlikely hit Precious, Lee Daniels is trying to figure out where he fits in a business that usually doesn’t value stories about 400-pound black girls.

Trained as an actor, Tom McCarthy hadn’t planned on becoming a director. But then inspiration struck and after three successful features, including Win Win, he’s hooked.

In his idiosyncratic career, Todd Haynes has followed his muse rather than the money.

The form and tools of documentary filmmaking have changed over the years, but what motivates Errol Morris is the pursuit of truth.

After eight years, British director Lynne Ramsay returns with a new film and another disturbing story.

Sanaa Hamri was the only girl in her high school in Morocco. But becoming a director seemed perfectly natural to her.

After success with High Art and Laurel Canyon, Lisa Cholodenko deliberated on what to do next. With The Kids Are All Right, she set out to do a personal film that can still be commercial.

How has Alex Gibney managed to turn hard-hitting subjects like Enron and the war on terror into award-winning documentaries?

Making quirky comedies with Sad-Sack heroes like Chuck & Buck and Youth in Revolt, Miguel Arteta has learned to trust in his own goofy instincts.

Kevin Smith, who pioneered gleefully vulgar comedies with films like Clerks and Chasing Amy, reflects on how he learned his craft.

Rebecca Miller has specialized in personal films about people in transition. Her latest picture, The Private Lives of Pippa Lee, gracefully takes a young woman into her past.

Greg Mottola always wanted to make serious movies. He still does, but with Superbad and the upcoming Adventureland, he's doing it with comedies.

After scoring a hit with Love & Basketball, it's taken Gina Prince-Bythewood eight years to make her second feature, The Secret Life of Bees. She explains what happened.

Karyn Kusama got off to a great start with Girlfight but descended into studio hell with Aeon Flux. As she rebounds with a new film, she reflects on lessons learned.

It took Kimberly Peirce nine years to make her second film after Boys Don't Cry. For Stop-Loss she tapped into soldiers' homemade videos for her inspiration.

From her youth in Texas, her training as an architect, and her experience as a production designer, Catherine Hardwicke has really learned the value of persistence.

After The Squid and the Whale, Noah Baumbach takes an even darker turn with Margot at the Wedding.

Kasi Lemmons had to use all her cinematic tricks to shoot Talk to Me, a period biopic of a trash-talking, Washington, D.C. deejay.

After American Splendor, Robert Pulcini and Shari Springer Berman take a different kind of risk with The Nanny Diaries.

Few directors in the last 25 years have the street credibility or indie credentials of Jim Jarmusch.

Julie Taymor uses her characteristic visual flair to fashion a '60s musical based on songs by The Beatles.

Indian-born Mira Nair has made a career out of directing colorful films about dislocated lives.

Michel Gondry makes his cinematic dream life come true.

Since her debut feature, Walking and Talking, Nicole Holofcener has been balancing between funny and sad. With Friends with Money she continues the journey.

A diverse group of Guild members shared their thoughts on: "What do you know now about making an independent film that you wish you knew then?"

The simplest definition of an independent movie is one made outside the studio system. Yet, Michael Apted has just been on one such film where he felt less independent than on any studio project he's ever done.