Tom DiCillo

New York independent filmmaker Tom DiCillo had the misfortune of a late start in a rapidly changing game. A graduate of the same film school gene pool as Spike Lee and Jim Jarmush, DiCillo's place in American independent film's so-called golden age was fixed first with his acclaimed work as a cinematographer for Jarmush, whose "Stranger than Paradise" (1984) enjoyed a brief reign as the apex of New York indie cinema. DiCillo did not complete his own directorial debut until he was nearly 40 years old; in the four-year interim between "Johnny Suede" (1991) and DiCillo's follow-up, "Living in Oblivion" (1995), the indie scene was transformed irrevocably by the meteoric critical and box office success of Quentin Tarantino's "Pulp Fiction" (1994), warping investor perceptions of reasonable profit margins for DIY filmmakers. Finding it more difficult to secure financing, DiCillo saw his subsequent four features released by four different distributers, among them Paramount Pictures and Lion's Gate, which remaindered his 2001 comedy "Double Whammy" directly to DVD in lieu of a theatrical release. Shoring up his bank account with TV work, DiCillo's association with executive producer Dick Wolf led to a career vindication with his PBS documentary "The Doors: When You're Strange" (2009), which earned DiCillo a shared Grammy Award and fortified his reputation as a principled filmmaker committed more to maintaining a consistent artistic vision than in reserving a place in the cult of personality.