Indie film movements have challenged mainstream narratives of cinema, sparked tough conversations among audiences, and allowed the emergence of filmmakers like Quentin Tarantino, Richard Linklater, Jean Luc-Goddard, John Cassavetes, Paul Thomas Anderson, and Claire Denis to push the boundaries of creativity, story, and narrative. However, they might soon be a thing of the past thanks to the rise of huge blockbuster franchises, streaming services, and shrinking attention spans.

Low-budget flicks have found it hard to compete in the current market, flooded with content from streaming services and movie box offices dominated by big-budget franchises. Realistically, newer generations may never know the true importance of indie film movements, illuminating untold stories and broadening the perspectives of generations of movie-going audiences.

However, this article is not about how to solve the demise of low-budget filmmaking or its importance in shaping culture and diverse world views. It’s an invitation to look at past indie movies, offering generations today a glimpse into what life was like a few generations ago.

Technology, particularly social media, and AI has brought us into a new era in human civilization. One of the big ways these technologies are changing our lives and culture is how we interact with each other. Dating apps, working from home, grocery deliveries, and asking Chat GPT over a library trip, are becoming normal life routines.

For generations longing for nostalgia or Gen Zers wanting a glimpse into how lives were lived in the past, indie movies that presented stories with grounded acting, neo-realist settings, and moving dialogue can be a treasure chest containing the zeitgeist of the times. One such movie is Richard Linklater’s Before Sunrise.

Linklater’s movies are known for their nuanced, realistic performances, well-written screenplays, and themes dealing with the effects of the passage of time. The times have surely changed since Before Sunrise was released in 1995. It’s why its opening scene in a Eurail train has now become a look into the past of how life was before smartphones and how conversations occurred more organically between strangers.

The movie is about two strangers, Jesse, American, (Ethan Hawke), and Celine, French, (Julie Delpy), deciding to hop off a train together to explore Vienna. Even though they have a 12-hour time constraint, they find self-discovery, through deep connection with one another. Their decision to leave the train can be seen as temporarily detaching themselves from their respective realities to focus solely on each other's presence.

The possibility of strangers finding a deep connection on a trip to a foreign country is still likely in today’s world but a train coach filled with people who are not distracted or engaged on a smartphone is rare. The opening scene in Before Sunrise captures a time before smartphones were part of our daily lives and the constant need for information through technology. Strangers can still meet on a foreign trip, but the progression of moments in the opening scene of Before Sunrise will likely never happen today without the interruption of technology.

The movie opens with a German couple fighting on a train while Celine sits across from them. As the argument intensifies, she moves back a few aisles and sits across from Jessie. Today, one can simply plug in their earphones and put on their meditative playlist mix to cancel out the sounds of a public argument.

Jesse and Celine, however, had no technological obstacles apart from the books they were reading. Once the German couple’s argument leads them to storm out of the coach, Jesse's curiosity towards Celine prompts him to ask her if she understands what they are saying and if she can translate. She says no, which gives birth to a moment of silence, but she then goes into this theory of why older couples fight. This breaks the awkward silence and they begin talking about the books they read. Yes, there was a time when people read books on trains and didn’t have to pull out their phones for information.

Once their conversation moved to the lounge car, Jesse and Celine discussed their cultural differences and current travels. This leads Jesse to talk about the benefits of traveling alone because it gives you ideas you wouldn’t otherwise have. He talks about this documentary idea of documenting people’s lives 24 hours a day, which is ironic to watch now because it seems like the scene predicted our lives to come with the dawn of social media.

Celine laughs it off as boring but we are not laughing now. We are fascinated more than ever with the lives of others. Celine and Jesse, however, are getting more connected through their chance interaction. Their conversation moves into their life aspirations, their parental pressures, young adult angst, death, and childhood. In a time where attention spans are short, the first 15 minutes of this movie could be all a Gen Z-er needs to peer into a connection not influenced by technology.

The nuanced and realistic acting makes this opening scene even more nostalgic, as it was a mid-‘90s movie, right before the dawn of Y2K and the creation of Facebook in 2004. Yes, one can argue that dating apps have made it safer for women to date and it would not be a good idea to leave a train with a complete stranger and spend the next 12 hours in a foreign city. But there was a time when it was common to build a connection with a stranger on a vacation. Connecting with strangers was how we filled the gaps, instead of taking out our phones for stimulus or distraction.

Complete strangers are still making connections but modern living today is a lot different compared to 30 years ago. It may not seem like it if you have not lived it and if the current spirit of the times has created an ever-evolving technological/info-driven culture, 30 years ago may seem like an ever-growing distant memory.

It’s why indie movies that capture a specific time and place with grounded performances spurred by a script with authentic levels of depth can be time capsules that store details of how we talked, flirted, interacted with discomfort, and built connections before the dawn of social media and AI. AI may be the future of acting and the arts but watching two stellar human actors take on complex roles, and building a genuine on-screen connection might be a new way of looking at the past to remember how we were and how we got to this point in history.

1995 might be a simpler time than 2025, but it was only six years after the Berlin Wall fell and the Bosnian war was on the cusp of ending. When people watched Before Sunrise in 1995, a good number of them probably loved it because it was romantic and cultured, and the dialogue spoke of the trouble and hope of the times. But well-made movies come to mean different things at different times especially when a director’s goal is to capture authentic behavior in believable settings.

The future of low-budgeted indie movies may be bleak but older flicks like Richard Linklater’s “Before Sunrise” and the entire Before Trilogy (yes, two more sequels made 8 years apart from each other) should be rewatched even if it’s just for the first 15 minutes. They hold examples of how we connected effortlessly, hoped for a better future, shared fears, slowed time down, and gave strangers a chance.