31 Indie SF Films in 31 Days (and Other Daily Projects)

So I'm done with daily Doctor Who reviews again (until Christmas), so I must again ask "what's next?". I've got a couple of daily projects set for December, actually. One of these is a movie marathon, inspired by my downstairs neighbor Marty's 31 horror films in 31 days of October. I went to see a good chunk of those movies and discovered some real gems, and no turkeys, really. So I'm going to try the same thing in December, but my theme will be indie science fiction films. I've assembled a list and plan to watch one a day, but only review them on Sunday as normal in This Week in Geek (for what will happen daily, starting tomorrow, keep reading). I've used the word "indie" pretty loosely. I'm interested in how people make SF films with low budgets primarily, but really, anything made without studio support (or that lost that support) could count. I've seen a few of these already, but want to revisit them. I've cut others I've seen too recently like Another Earth, or because their auteur has another film on the list, like Primer, but to help me structure the marathon, I've split the films into six categories. One a day, with a selection of favorites for Fridays when I have people over. Here's what I came up with (films in alphabetical order, will choose on the day, according to whim and people present):
Mondays: TIME TRAVEL
Frequently Asked Questions About Time Travel
Happy Accidents
Safety Not Guaranteed
Sound of My Voice
Upstream Color
Tuesdays: MAD SCIENCE
Cube
Extracted
John Dies at the End
Manborg
Radio Free Ablemuth
The Signal
Wednesdays: ASTRONAUTS
The American Astronaut (Friday pick)
Cargo
Christmas on Mars (Christmas eve pick)
Mars
Europa Report
Moon
Thursdays: APOCALYPTIC
Blindness
Melancholia
Monsters (Friday pick)
The Rover
Snowpiercer (Friday pick)
Take Shelter
Saturdays: LOVE
Code 46
The Future

Perfect Sense
TiMER
Sundays: INTELLECTUAL (bit of a catch-all, really)
Coherence
The Double
The Man from Earth
Metropolis

So there you have it. Catch the action on Twitter or on each successive Sunday.

But if I'm going to watch a whole film every day, I can't be spending too much time watching SOMETHING ELSE for daily reviews. So a half-hour show then. Okay. And if I start tomorrow, what has exactly 34 episodes and would take me to the end of the year? And what's actually pretty relevant to my interests as a Doctor Who fan? The answer, my friends, is Sapphire & Steel, Who's ITV rival/rip-off/head trip starring Joanna Lumley and David McCallum. Not sure what that is? I'll start on it tomorrow, right after the last Whovian review. And if you're a strict Doctor Who fan, come back Monday for Series 8 seen as a role-playing campaign. Lots of cool stuff coming atcha, hope you agree!

Comments

tomg said…
Snowpiercer is not really an Indie Film It had a huge budget and marketing campaign, was made by a major movie studio with big-name actors/director, and it was made to appeal to the masses.
Siskoid said…
I'm well aware, and then it was shrugged off by the studio like it was a niche product meant for direct-to-DVD. This is what I meant by "loosely".
Oh my God, Sapphire and Steel!!! Yesssss... I still remember my geek out when my friend started going out with David Collings son. It was a sad day when she broke up with him.

I do have a couple of insights and stories that I'll try and share when we get to Silver's scenes.
Dave said…
Siskoid, I feel u are missing the last big scifi show from the 90's - the x-files! Surely must be in the queue somewhere?! ( space above and beyond us v good as well) As always, bravo on ur tv stamina and will always read what u watch sir!
Siskoid said…
My plans for the immediate future are entirely based on what's on my to-watch shelf - Space 1999, Alien Nation, Buck Rogers... and potentially series on my already-watched shelf if I can get enough distance since the last time I watched them - Battlestar Galactica, Space Above and Beyond (more likely in the short term, I love it too), possibly even the Buffyverse. I don't have X-Files on either of those. I started out not liking it, then I did, then I lost interest... It could happen at some point, we'll see.
Siskoid said…
Nicholas, I don't know how you're doing it, possibly the Bold tags in your signature, but I never ever get email notifications when you comment, so I've probably ignored some of them and if so I'm sorry!

So I'll have to check my S&S posts repeatedly to make sure I don't miss those Silver stories (unless you can fix that of course).
Anonymous said…
Cannot wait for Sapphire & Steel. That was my New Old Thing last winter and I loved it. So I've seen it recently enough that I'll be able to follow along with you.

Thanks for choosing it!

- Jason
Siskoid said…
Dilemma! I can get all 9 seasons of the X-Files and the two movies for less than 120$.

While I have no great enthusiasm for the series, I have to agree it WOULD make a good daily project...
Siskoid said…
Come to think of it, any X-Files project would necessarily include Millennium and The Lone Gunmen.

Not sure what I think of that, but adding them to the pile is still under 150 bucks.

Question is: Do I want to spend a year doing this?