What is Parallel Cinema?
Parallel cinema is the name given to experimental, independent, & art films produced in West Bengal, India starting in the 1950s. Typically these films reject popular cinema styles and are produced at smaller production companies or by the director. The movement is known for “serious content, realism and naturalism, symbolic elements with a keen eye on the sociopolitical climate of the times, and for the rejection of the dance-and-song numbers that are typical of mainstream commercial Indian cinema." Parallel cinema is sometimes referred to as "cinema prayoga."
Read an overview of parallel cinema here from The Hindu newspaper.
Read an overview of cinema prayoga here
Free Online Resources
- Tongues on Fire
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Tongues on Fire is a not-for-profit organization showcasing independent films associated with South Asia. They host an annual film festival and blog regularly about contemporary South Asian film. - India Indepedent Films (IIF)
Interviews, articles, and reviews of independent Indian and South Asian films. Includes film critic suggestions and analysis of films.
Books
Cinema of Prayoga by Call Number: Wells Librar PN1995.9.E96 C56 2006ISBN: 9780955388101The Cinema of Prayoga presents the rich and unseen world of artists' film from India. This book aims to present these works in a comprehensive appraisal of film work outside the popular Bollywood films for which India is traditionally known. This volume traces a history of powerful and personal filmmaking outside of the industrialized system.
India's New Independent Cinema by 
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Call Number: PN1993.5.I8 D485 2016ISBN: 9781138184626This is the first-ever book on the rise of the new wave of independent Indian films revolutionizing Indian cinema.
India: Auteur Films, Independent Documentaries and Video Art (1899-2008) by - This link opens in a new window
Call Number: PN1993.5.I8 I475 2009ISBN: 9788496917460Publication Date: 2009-02-01The film programme entitled India. Auteur Films, Independent Documentaries and Video Art (1899-2008) presented by La Casa Encendida retrieves, compiles and brings to light a fair number of cinematographic works, most of which have not been previously screened in Spain, that bear witness to the audiovisual experiences in India over the first century of the history of the medium.
