RE: The State of Independent Cinema - 2016
Just to be clear, crowdfunding has failed for independent feature films. Pretty much every crowdfunding success is a) American, b) Involves known names, c) Crowdfunded by immediate family and friends. There are some documentaries and short films that have seen success, primarily because of the lower asked funding. But even so, the proportion of successfully funded projects is vanishingly rare.
The moment you get to an independent feature film and ask for, say $150,000 (which is the bare minimum). Nope, no chance whatsoever.
Crowdfunders aren't particularly skilled at deciphering complex 120 page scripts, there's no real known name to go by, and it's a lot of money to ask for basically based on blind faith of a director's ability.
Greenlighting projects is a real skill - the truth is no one knows if a film will turn out well. Plenty a great scripts have ended up as rubbish films. Not to mention, independent films which strive to go beyond the text and explore the visual form - it's nigh impossible for a professional to judge that, let alone a layman crowdfunder.