Just consider how many more films since have boasted suited gunmen, feature heists gone wrong, people riffing on pop culture, or a fractured narrative? We're not the only ones with something to thank Tarantino for. You only have to look through the homages and rip-offs that have abounded. Since its arrival, however, more than one generation has had its eyes opened to the long-snubbed world of moviemaking's outsiders, be it American mavericks, foreign actioners, or just plain old B pictures. It garnered rave reviews, but Dogs' box office performance wasn't great - again, it had to wait for word of mouth.

Harvey Keitel lent his weight to raise the $1.2 million budget. Consider, too, the film's creation: script written in two weeks while the author was in a dead-end day job, it barely changed from first draft to shooting script, and attracted attention by word of mouth. From those long, nutso riffs on Madonna, tipping and John HolmesвЂ™ willy to the raw despair of Tim Roth bleeding to death in the back of a getaway car, it grabs you by the throat and refuses to let go. The plotting is as tight as anything since SpadeвЂ™s days of gumshoeing, but it was the needle-jab dialogue that made us fall instantly in love with QT. Reservoir Dogs (1992)ДЄ modern noir classic, Reservoir Dogs announced Quentin Tarantino to the world in a spray of blood, severed ears and Mexican stand-offs. ItвЂ™s strange to think that with a quirk of casting it could have been Jon Voight joining the ranks of the mooks. De Niro, so magnetic here as wildcard wiseguy Johnny Boy. For this alone, this gritty Lower East Side drama would be worth noting, but it's also shot through with hints of Scorsese's virtuosity (the wonderful pop-infused soundtrack and the scene where a drunk Keitel teeters through a bar in one disorienting shot), and tantalising glimpses of his future preoccupations: gangsters, the mores of masculinity and a rich and varied partnership with one Mr.

A strange mixture of seedy violence, frank nudity and the sort of language you'd expect to hear from gangsters in New York's Little Italy, the film is nonetheless drenched in a veil of Catholic guilt (lead Harvey Keitel, as Charlie, a small-time hood who knows that he should get the hell out of the game, constantly chastises and tests himself) and seems to act as a permanent celluloid confessional for Scorsese's baser instincts. OK, maybe forget the last one, and replace it with Mean Streets which, to this day, remains probably Scorsese's most personal and powerful work. Stated simply like that, those three words just don't scan correctly, but if Martin Scorsese had gone with his first love, the priesthood, instead of his second, making movies, we'd never had Goodfellas, or Raging Bull, or Taxi Driver, or Kundun. PARTNERING WITH LOCAL FILM COMMUNITY ADVOCATES SUCH AS MERIDIAN HILL PICTURES, INDIECAPITOL, PICTURE LOCK SHOW, DMV PRODUCER'S ASSOCIATION AND DCFILMDOM.COM, RIFE IS STEADILY WORKING TOWARDS CEMENTING OUR SELF PROCLAIMED GOAL OF BECOMING THE 'PEOPLE'S FESTIVAL' BY SUPPORTING, SPOTLIGHTING AND PROMOTING THE WASHINGTON METROPOLITAN (DMV) FILM COMMUNITY WHILE CONTINUING TO BRING THE BEST POSSIBLE DOMESTIC AND INTERNATIONAL FARE TO OUR FESTIVAL.Father Martin Scorsese. RIFE IS FOCUSING ON SHOWCASING A HIGHER PERCENTAGE OF INDEPENDENTLY PRODUCED LOCAL FILMS TO SCREEN ALONGSIDE OUR METICULOUSLY CURATED DOMESTIC AND INTERNATIONAL OFFERINGS. WE ARE WORKING TO BRIDGE THE GAP BETWEEN LOCAL FILMMAKERS, THE FILM LOVER AND THE DOMESTIC/INTERNATIONAL INDEPENDENT FILM SCENE. RIFE IS SPEARHEADING THE WASHINGTON METROPOLITAN (DMV) FILM COMMUNITY MOVEMENT.

THE EVENT STRIVES TO PRESENT THE BEST OF TRULY INDEPENDENT FILMS IN A VARIETY OF CATEGORIES FROM AROUND THE WORLD IN AN ENVIRONMENT DESIGNED TO PROVIDE UNIQUE OPPORTUNITIES FOR PARTICIPANTS TO INTERACT WITH ONE ANOTHER AND ENJOY THE WORLD OF CINEMA. RIFE IS AN EVENT CREATED BY FILMMAKERS FOR FILMMAKERS.

Independent films