Pursuits

The Truly Independent Filmmaker

To make the movies she wanted, Kelly Reichardt had to go it alone.

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By Logan Hill

January 14, 2016 at 1:00 PM UTC

This article is for subscribers only.

This article is part of the January 18, 2016 issue of businessweek.

In the winter of 1994 director Kelly Reichardt almost missed the Sundance Film Festival debut of her first film because she was stuck on a train.

“I couldn’t afford the plane tickets,” says Reichardt, shrugging her slight shoulders in a Manhattan cafe. “The train froze on the tracks and took five days instead of three. We got there just in time for our premiere. We hadn’t showered in five days. We were total grease heads.”