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Kelly Reichardt is the first book-length study of contemporary filmmaker Kelly Reichardt. This book argues that Reichardt’s process-based slow cinema captures the “emergent” quality of contemporary, neoliberal emergencies such as global warming and economic precarity. The book positions Reichardt’s filmmaking in relation to contemporary American independent cinema, the international slow cinema movement, and the tradition of European neorealism. Drawing from these lineages, Reichardt’s cinema emphasizes the local effects of global catastrophes and represents crises as everyday experiences that are slow in unfolding. In this way, the book argues that Reichardt challenges the cinema’s tendency to spectacularize disaster. She makes this critique both through her films’ pacing and her tendency to work with the traditions of genre film, only to deflate their most thrilling elements to reveal what has been termed the slow violence of our postindustrial moment. Additionally, the book considers Reichardt’s frequently thin characterization of her protagonists, arguing that the underdrawn and often unlikeable characters work to challenge audience identification and the expectations that victims of emergency should be especially deserving or empathetic. In chapters that examine Reichardt’s earliest film, her four Oregon-centric films, and her experimental short films, Kelly Reichardt establishes Reichardt as a crucial voice in American independent film, one committed to documenting the challenges of the twenty-first century.

Over her multi-film career, the American independent filmmaker Kelly Reichardt has established a highly individual perspectives on questions of gender, feminism, socioeconomics and sexual orientation, set within an aesthetic framework that is guided by the low-budget techniques of ‘slow cinema,’ minimalism and neorealism. ReFocus: The Films of Kelly Reichardt argues that Reichardt’s films have a distinctive look due to stylistic and aesthetic choices prompted by production limitations; Reichardt has embraced the intensive labor involved with low budget filmmaking, establishing signature auteur characteristics. In this close reading of her feature films and experimental shorts, including production methods, E. Dawn Hall defines Reichardt’s auteur characteristics, arguing that she offers a contemporary and sustainable model for independent filmmakers in America. By chronicling Reichardt’s career, ReFocus: The Films of Kelly Reichardt attempts to draw conclusions about women’s career longevity in the independent sector. Through a comprehensive study of production methodology, this book positions Reichardt’s filmmaking as a choice to remain independent and low-budget, highlighting the gendered dimensions of labor, creativity, and challenges contextualized within contemporary industry practices.