Editing Stranger Than Paradise (section)

==Background and production==
Writer and director [[Jim Jarmusch]] shot his first feature, ''[[Permanent Vacation (1980 film)|Permanent Vacation]]'' (1980) as his final thesis at [[New York University]]'s film school and spent the next four years making ''Stranger than Paradise''. At NYU he studied under director [[Nicholas Ray]], who had brought him along as his personal assistant for the production of ''[[Lightning over Water]]'', a portrait of Ray being filmed by [[Wim Wenders]].<ref name="hoberman" /> Wenders gave Jarmusch the remaining film stock from his subsequent film, ''[[The State of Things (film)|Der Stand der Dinge]]'' (1982), enabling the young director to shoot the 30-minute short that became ''Stranger Than Paradise''{{Citation needed|reason=The Criterion citation does not corroborate this|date=November 2022}}. It was released as a standalone film in 1982,<ref name="hoberman" /> and shown as "Stranger Than Paradise" at the 1983 [[International Film Festival Rotterdam]]. When it was later expanded into a [[three-act structure|three-act feature]], the name was appropriated for the feature itself, and the initial segment was renamed "The New World".