Do you remember that in Shadows the cameraman had to hide a camera in his trenchcoat to shoot the long pans in Penn Station because they didn't have permits?
Slacker borrowed heavily from Cul de Sac, a pretty good New Wave film. Forget the director. Also, Linklater had to be inventive in financing and equipment.
My favorite film financing story is Richard Rodriguez submitting to medical experiments to pay for El Mariachi.
'Cul De Sac' is a British film directed by Roman Polanski so good luck finding fans here! :)