Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Motion Picture Patents Company formed a cartel known as the Edison Trust in 1908. This organization held a monopoly on film production and distribution across the United States.
Independent filmmakers formed the Lincoln Motion Picture Company on the 24th of May 1916 as the first movie studio owned and controlled by independent creators. Mary Pickford, Charles Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, and D.W. Griffith later created United Artists in 1919 to challenge major studios.
Maya Deren created Meshes of the Afternoon in 1943 using inexpensive portable cameras during World War II. Kenneth Anger followed with Fireworks in 1947 while Morris Engel, Ruth Orkin, and Ray Abrashkin produced Little Fugitive in 1953.
Easy Rider became one of the first completely independent films of New Hollywood when Dennis Hopper made his writing and directing debut alongside producer co-star and co-writer Peter Fonda in 1969. The film debuted at Cannes and garnered the First Film Award before receiving two Oscar nominations.
Sterling Van Wagenen and Charles Gary Allison founded the Utah US Film Festival in 1978 with Chairperson Robert Redford. In 1991 the festival was officially renamed the Sundance Film Festival after Redford's famous role as The Sundance Kid.
The Blair Witch Project grossed over US$248.6 million while only spending US$60,000 demonstrating the power of new accessibility to filmmaking tools. Digital video arrived in the early 1990s lowering the technology barrier to movie production.