An entertaining, inspirational memoir by the celebrated independent filmmaker and writer, director, and actor whose first film - The Brothers McMullen - has become an indie classic. Filmmaker Edward burns has titled his career memoir Independent Ed for good reason- For more than twenty years he has been making films based only on personal stories, while also being a pioneer in the new and ever-changing forms of independent film distribution. It all started for him in 1993 when right after college he wrote a screenplay during the downtime of his first job as a TV production assistant at Entertainment Tonight. With $25,000 borrowed from his New York police officer father, he made The Brothers McMullen in twelve harried days he calls 'the twelve best days of my life.' It ended up winning the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance in 1995 and became the first film picked up for distribution by Fox Searchlight Pictures, grossing more than $10 million. Independent Ed is Eddie's candid, illuminating account of making a dozen or so seat-of-his-pants films as well as his experiences as an actor in major Hollywood movies. His charm and no-bullshit honesty are everywhere in the pages of his book, whether he's writing about his eureka moment when he realized he could carve a niche as the filmmaker of the Irish American working-class experience; the actors he auditioned and worked with before they were stars, including Angelina Jolie, Jennifer Lopez, Cameron Diaz, and Jennifer Aniston; or his failures as an actor and director. He's frank about how at various points he went from the hottest indie director to nobody virtually overnight and about what it's like to be acting for the camera for the first time in a major Hollywood feature, Saving Private Ryan. From becoming the first filmmaker to premiere a movie on iTunes to portraying Bugsy Siegel in the acclaimed TV series Mob City and conceiving, writing, directing, and acting in TNT's police drama Public Morals, Independent Ed is the captivating first-person account of a tenaciously independent filmmaker's remarkable journey. Praise for Independent Ed 'So I'm coming out of a photo shoot that always makes me uncomfortable, and a young guy with shaggy hair and a shaggy outfit hits me up with the tape of a film he's made, The Brothers McMullen. He looked like a panhandler . . . but being always sympathetic to the working class, I take it and tell him I'll have a look. I saw it and I liked it a lot. (Perhaps my Irish heritage played a role here . . . .) I told him it was fifteen minutes too long. Take twenty minutes out and let's see. To me this represented everything the Sundance festival should be - the independent spirit we should represent. So we took it, ran it, and the rest is history.' Robert Redford 'Even if I didn't have the uniquely rare experience of sharing personally, in various ways, the last twenty years of Eddie Burns's journey, including the launch of my own career, I would still be moved to tears - as I was often while reading his book - with the honest and inspiring walk down memory lane that he has now generously chosen to share with the world. This book is for every aspiring filmmaker, for sure, but also every aspiring artist looking for direction, inspiration, and wisdom. And it is also for folks like me - artists, anyone - who have been at it for a long time and maybe forgotten the sparks and the passion that drove us toward what we love, barring nothing, living by no one's rules except those we created, and defying obstacles to bring our dreams and our stories to life. Thanks again, Eddie.' Connie Britton 'Ed has created a work that is equal parts inspiration and essential inf