Since cinema's earliest beginnings, there has been friction between producers and directors. Shady accounting practices, which favored the distributors at the expense of the filmmakers, were all too common, causing many filmmakers to form independent companies to make and distribute their own product.

This book examines six such low-budget exploitation companies--Associated Distributors Productions, Filmgroup, Hemisphere Pictures, American General Pictures, Independent-International Pictures, Dimension Pictures, and the author's own American-Independent Productions. A brief history of each company, laced with quotes from the company's principals, is presented, followed by a filmography that lists all known credits for that company.