The American independent cinema is flourishing as never before, and its achievements are, both in the realm of individual works and as a sort of loosely but unmistakably collective set of endeavors, among the glories of world cinema. But it’s hard to get to see many of the films in question, not least because the same technological and economic changes that make the films possible have also made theatrical and even home-video distribution tough to land—and some filmmakers are doing something about it. One of them is Kentucker Audley, who, two years ago, made his film “Open Five” available at his own Web site, and has since launched another site, NoBudge, which offers works by many independent filmmakers and showcases them in unusual and original ways.

That site is in the midst of its “Live Screening Series,” a splendid online paradox: they’re showing movies one night only, as if it were a movie theatre, and the one that’s coming tomorrow night, in première—“Marvin Seth and Stanley,” by Stephen Gurewitz—is not to be missed. (The film will be available on the site from 5 P.M. E.T. until midnight; there will also be an online Q. & A. with Gurewitz at 9:30 P.M.) Gurewitz’s film is an extraordinarily touching and quietly hilarious dramatic version of “Shit My Dad Says.” The story is simple: two grown sons, Stanley (Gurewitz), a neurotic struggling actor, and Seth (Alex Karpovsky), an aggressive media guy whose marriage is breaking up, return home to Minnesota for a camping trip with their aging, divorced father, Marvin (who is played by Gurewitz’s real-life father, Marvin). It’s the kind of observational comedy that most observational comedies aren’t—because this one is based in actual observation, in an unsparing intimacy regarding the characters, a pitch-perfect ear for the lifetime of emotion packed in an offhanded remark, and a patiently avid camera-eye that follows the characters insistently and pounces on quiet moments of revelation.

Karpovsky has done lots of terrific acting, as in Andrew Bujalski’s “Beeswax”; he’s now, of course, best known as Ray, the insult-barista and diary-filcher in “Girls,” and he has a major role in the Coen brothers’ upcoming film, “Inside Llewyn Davis.” His performance here is fiercely uninhibited; he plays a bastard in pain, a low-sensitivity guy who’s fortunate to have a family to take it out on. I haven’t seen Stephen Gurewitz onscreen before; he brings the torment of quiet desperation and the pride of frustration to life with great humanity. He’ll also be in Bob Byington’s upcoming film “Somebody Up There Likes Me” (I doubt it’s about Rocky Graziano) and, judging from his performance in “Marvin Seth and Stanley,” we’ll be seeing much more of him. As for Marvin Gurewitz, he’s got the role of a lifetime, and he invests it with a lifetime of experience and just the tinge of bemused irony (Act in my son’s movie? If that’s what he wants…) that keeps the story away from bathos and sentiment.