By MICHELLE PASTER, Daily News Managing Editor

Many iconic independent filmmakers bring their work to AFI FEST this year.

They all work in their own way, and have managed to become household names through sheer force of will and, of course, by making great films. The list includes John Sayles, Tamara Jenkins, Noah Baumbach, Julian Schnabel, Jacques Rivette, Wayne Wang, Alex Cox and Greg Araki.

Working outside the Hollywood system isn't easy. As Araki, director of SMILEY FACE, attests to, it takes "blood, sweat, and many, many tears."

SMILEY FACE is about aspiring pothead and actress Jane F. (Anna Faris), and her journey to pay back her drug dealer after having eaten the pot cupcakes baked by her roommate (That '70s Show's Danny Masterson).

Araki says he was attracted to the script because it "wasn't a runof- the-mill stoner" flick. There are no buddying male characters. There is no bong hit after multiple bong hit throughout the film. There's munchies, there's blank stares, and yes, there's even a smiley face in the sky. But the female stoner brings a fresh take.

"There's a genuine, unique, and original voice that made me fall in love with the characters and laugh out loud," Araki says.

Sayles' filmed HONEYDRIPPER in Alabama with a cast of blues musicians, including Gary Clark Jr. and Keb' Mo', and actors including Danny Glover and Lisa Gay Hamilton. Sayles spins the story of a broke rural Alabama nightclub owner who desperately pulls a fast scam to save his business. But he also investigates the clash between musicians that occurred when blues players were introduced to electric instruments in the mid 1900s, something that wouldn't usually find its way into a studio picture.

"I've always felt that the beginning of any new spirit or style in the world - in sports, art, religion, politics - makes for an interesting story," Sayles writes on his Emerging Pictures blog. "Who jumps aboard the new thing right away and who decides, no thanks, I'm sticking with what I know? What is the cost when you make either decision?" And for SEARCHERS 2.0 Alex Cox threw cast and crew into rented vehicles and made his film on the road between L.A. and Monument Valley. Traveling with them in the film, we learn a lot about Westerns, the film business and life in general as two unhappy actors make their way to Utah to kill screenwriter Fritz Frobisher.

How's that for Independent Thinking?