Credit: Screencap from American Movie

What is it: A documentary about doomed independent filmmakers who nevertheless keep going.

Perfect for: Time travel to Milwaukee during the late 1990s in order to witness a three-year effort to make a short indie horror flick.

Professing a love for the stark aesthetics of classic low-budget horror movies, amateur director Mark Borchardt sets out to make his dream film, Northwestern. Despite garnering attention from local actors and crew, the project falls apart by the fourth pre-production meeting due to lack of budget and planning. Borchardt instead turns to incomplete footage of Coven, aiming to finish it in order to earn enough money to finance his larger ambitions. Even this smaller goal becomes an epic undertaking, as he and his friends struggle to complete the project with few resources besides their own willingness to pursue the improbable.

Documentary filmmaker Chris Smith witnesses this endeavor, adding a depth of understanding by observing the time, place, and circumstances of his subjects’ lives. Highlights include Borchardt getting a job at the cemetery he used to film videos in as a kid, an unfettered scream performed by the otherwise soft-spoken Mike Schank, a pleasant debate about the pronunciation of ‘coven’ between yielders of disparate dialects, a moment of revelation when Borchardt attempts to talk his mother through the filming of a dramatic closeup, and disastrous cabinetry stunt work… to name only a few.

Over the course of the film it becomes clear that Borchardt and those who help him in his pursuit possess profoundly deep bonds of friendship and family. Coven ultimately becomes a shared work of art that gives meaning to each and every person who shows up to help it get made.