Over her six-film career, including works like Old Joy, Meek's Cutoff and Certain Women, the independent filmmaker Kelly Reichardt has established a highly individual perspective on questions of gender, feminism, socioeconomics and sexual orientation, set within an aesthetic framework that is guided by the low-budget techniques of 'slow cinema', minimalism and neorealism. In this close reading of her films and production methods, E. Dawn Hall defines Reichardt's auteur characteristics, arguing that she offers a contemporary and sustainable model for independent filmmakers in America.