Check this space often for Grainy News, Website updates, Split Screen air dates
and times and anything else we feel like tossing on here.

2023
Split Screen streaming now on The Criterion Channel
Catch all 10 Seasons of Split Screen on The Criterion Channel now.
Your wild ride through the indie film world - by filmmakers, for everyone. From 1997 to 2001, producer and author John Pierson and his band of cinephiles roved the U.S. seeking pockets of movie madness, for this irreverent sixty-episode series.
Watch now
2016
Reel Paradise is released on DVD February 14, 2006.
Award-winning director Steve James' (Hoop Dreams, Stevie)
Reel Paradise tells the extraordinary story of one American
family's unique adventure running a cinema in one of the most isolated villages on the planet.
John Pierson, noted indie film maven and author of Spike, Mike, Slackers & Dykes uprooted
his family for a year and moved to Taveuni, a remote island in Fiji. John's passion is the 180
Meridian Cinema, which becomes the island's focal point of entertainment after he makes
admission free and starts showing the most current popular worldwide releases - everything
from Bend it Like Beckham to Jackass. In the meantime, his wife, Janet and their two kids,
Wyatt (13) and Georgia (16), immerse themselves in Fijian culture, discovering in very personal
ways what it is like to be the outsider.
DVD SPECIAL FEATURES:
- AUDIO COMMENTARY WITH STEVE JAMES AND JANET PIERSON
- 16X9 ANAMORPHIC PRESENTATION
- DELETED SCENES
- ALTERNATE ENDING
- SPLIT SCREEN: FIJI STOOGES
- TRAILERS
- 5.1 MIX
Buy Reel Paradise on DVD here or
here.
January 2005
Reel Paradise
September 2004
THE AUSTIN CHRONICLE - "Me Talk Dirty One Day"
Bryan Poyser and Jacob Vaughan come clean on their "Dear Pillow'
By John Pierson.
More...
Summer 2004
THE AUSTIN CHRONICLE - "Good News and Bad News"
"Say what you will maybe it ain't the Seventies reborn but the cultural impact of independent cinema has been kind of spectacular."
So says John Pierson, who, let's mince neither words nor pies here, knows what the fuck he speaks of. The longtime New York-based indie agent provocateur, producer, gadfly, and author of the seminal Spike, Mike, Slackers and Dykes was the first to vaunt Spike Lee, Kevin Smith, Michael Moore, and some guy named Linklater, among scads more of the Nineties-era cinematic revolutionaries whose low- and no-budget cinematic outbursts coalesced into something of a golden age of indie film
that continues more or less through today.
More...
February 2004
INDIEWIRE - "Reloaded" Pierson Book Examines A Decade of Independent Films
Long before Peter Biskind's "Down and Dirty Pictures," John Pierson wrote a must-read book
about independent films and filmmaking. Published in 1995, "Spike, Mike, Slackers & Dykes"
looked at 10 years in independent cinema, from "Stranger Than Paradise" in 1984 through
"Clerks" and "Pulp Fiction" in 1994. Pierson, recently back from a stint living in Fiji
where he and his family ran a movie theater, is on bookshelves once again with "Spike Mike
Reloaded," a slightly
revised version of his definitive indie tome.
More...
January 2003
BACK STORY
Showing free movies in Fiji: Is he an ugly American?
By John Pierson, Special to The Times
Showtime. Saturday night. As I stood in the funky lobby of Fiji's 180
Meridian Cinema, Vin ("XXX") Diesel coolly played his "new breed of secret
agent" to a full house inside. I was not cool. I was squirming because I
actually thought I might go to jail for refusing to charge admission at my
theater.
More...
July 2002
FIRST PERSON
Isle of Forgotten Fans
In Fiji, a decaying theater with patrons from 8 months to 80 rekindles an indie maven's love of film
By JOHN PIERSON
I recently became the proud owner of the world's most remote movie theater. A year from now, you could be wearing a T-shirt that says, "I saw it at the 180 Meridian Cinema." At least that's how I see it.
My wife and kids, whom I dearly love, have a slightly different take.
More...
Summer 2001
Slack Where We Started
Richard Linklater and John Pierson Ponder 'Slacker' and Its Aftermath.
What Should John Do Next?
The results are in!
Fall 2000
Split Screen 2000 and Split Screen: Projections
If you're wondering what we've been up
to during the extended off-season, we turned How's Your News?
(see Episode #44) into a feature documentary, and
traveled halfway around the globe in search of the world's most remote movie theater. We found it, the 180
Meridian Cinema, in Fiji. You'll see it on Split Screen's fourth season Labor Day premiere, the first of
sixteen all-new episodes.
But we're really having a double premiere this fall.
For twelve weeks starting October 2nd, Split Screen will be shifting gears.
In conjunction with the publication of the newest editions of Faber & Faber's
splendid Projections, we'll be showcasing a series of twelve
extended interviews unified by the theme of filmmaking in New York.
May 2000
Split Screen announces new season premiere on September 4, 2000
January 2000
The Decade According to John Pierson
John talks with Eugene Hernandez and Mark Rabinowitz from indieWire about the last decade in
Independent Film.
November, 1999
The Story Behind The Missing Split Screen Episode (#47)
If you tuned in to Split Screen on Monday, October
18th expecting to see one of our ten "all-new" Fall '99
episodes, you saw a repeat instead. We now reveal why.
October, 1999
Catch John Pierson and Split Screen at the Walter Reade Theater - October 11th at 7:00pm
Back for a second go-round on the big screen at the
Walter Reade Theater, John Pierson's TV series Split
Screen is completing its third year on the Independent
Film Channel
August 24th, 1999
IFC's 5th Birthday Weekend Kicks Off On Friday September 3 at 8:00PM/ET
With the Premiere of
The Best Of Split Screen
Indie Expert John Pierson Hosts an Hour-long Restrospective of the Series He Created Exclusively for IFC
Christopher Walken
and his Exploding Shrimp
headline the Season Premiere of
SPLIT SCREEN
this labor day on
The Independent Film Channel
Indie Film Expert JOHN PIERSON
Serves Up a New Season of Epicurean Delights
Every Monday Night at 8:00PM Beginning on SEPTEMBER 6
August 9th, 1999
The Blair Witch Connection
Psst. Wanna buy a non-bootleg videotape?
May 20th, 1999
Indie Film Expert John Pierson Invites
Fans to Experience the Independent Film Channel; Nine City National Tour
Kicks Off Tuesday, May 25
Fresh from the Cannes International Film Festival, John Pierson, the
creator and host of IFC's original signature series Split Screen, and
author of the acclaimed book Spike, Mike, Slackers & Dykes, hits the
open road for a cross-country tour, bringing his patented indie wit and
wisdom with him. From Cherry Hill, New Jersey to Sacramento, California,
film fans are invited to hang with John for a first-hand look behind the
scenes of the indie film world.
March 30th, 1999
Lost Script from the 1999 Independent Spirit Awards
We stumbled over this unused script for Randy Quaid and Vicki Lewis from
the 1999 Independent Spirit Awards. Check it out here.
February 25th, 1999
John's Top Ten for 1998
John's put in his Top Ten for 1998. Check it out here.
February 5th, 1999
Split Screen Special Event at the Walter Reade Theater, NYC
August
1998
The Walter Reade Theater Program from August 1998 features an article about John and Split Screen and
details the August 25th appearance.
John Pierson/Split Screen Travel Schedule
Catch John Pierson and/or the Split Screen crew at these following locations in 1999.
January 18th, 1999
Free Sundance! - Premiere Magazine - February 1999
Check out John's article in the February issue of Premiere Magazine - what if Sundance gave up the
growing wards glut and let the films speak for themselves? Read the full article here.
January 16th, 1999
PBS premiere of Blackside's (Eyes on the Prize)
Feb. 3, 1999
PBS premiere of Blackside's (Eyes on the Prize)
new six
hour
documentary on Black Arts in America: the "She's Gotta Have
It" episode.
January 11th, 1999
SPLIT SCREEN SCOOPS SUNDANCE -
IFC SIGNATURE SERIES BOOSTS
PARK CITY FESTIVAL ENTRIES
Media attending the Sundance Film Festival this January will be on the
lookout for new stories - searching for the next big thing. Split Screen,
the Independent Film Channel's original signature series, has been there,
done that. Now the traveling movie 'zine is stopping in Park City long
enough to celebrate the five Festival selections which have already been
the subjects of Split Screen segments
January 5th, 1998
To all you enterprising American independent filmmakers
1997
Our site becomes the victim of a Cyber Hostage Taker. Read all
about it here.
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