A DECADE UNDER THE INFLUENCE

For a sample list of available titles and additional research resources at UCLA please download our expanded collection profile

Ted Demme and Richard LaGravanese's documentary film A Decade Under the Influence investigates commercial filmmaking in Hollywood during the 1970s through some of the influential films and careers of the filmmakers and performers who helped to define the era. The UCLA Film and Television Archive Research and Study Center holds audio copies of the unedited interview footage recorded during the production of the film as well as typed transcripts of these interviews. Both the transcripts and recordings are available for use on-site at the Archive Research and Study Center.

Hollywood arrived in the 1970s struggling in the wake of conflict brought upon by the gradual decline of studio power and a collection of unsuccessful high cost films that failed to find a mass audience. Studio management attempted to counter these difficulties by employing an array of 'outsiders,' young film directors, most with little professional experience in the industry and highly influenced by the international cinema, to produce a range of smaller-budget films aimed for a changing audience who came to the movie theater with a set of new expectations. What resulted from this routine corporate maintenance task was one of the most innovative and experimental periods found in the major commercial American cinema.

Combining interviews from the generation of directors, writers and performers who played a seminal role in defining this period, A Decade Under the Influence chronicles the rise of these new creative principals directly from the individuals who helped usher in this vanguard era of commercial filmmaking. Featured interviews in the audio collection include: Francis Ford Coppola, Ellen Burstyn, Peter Bogdanovich, Pam Grier, Martin Scorsese and Sissy Spacek.