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June, 19, 2015

POV 2015: More Great Docs to Get You Through Summer

[caption id="attachment_7008" align="alignnone" width="600"] Out in the Night[/caption] Our friends at POV are ready to grab the baton for thought-provoking docs airing Mondays on PBS, with a new slate of films about extraordinarily strong and determined individuals. The 28th season of POV begins…
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September, 4, 2014

Independent Lens Announces New Fall Slate

[caption id="attachment_5886" align="alignnone" width="600"] From Bully[/caption] On the heels of receiving ten News and Documentary Emmy nominations, Independent Lens announced today that its new season will open with the critically-acclaimed documentary Bully. Directed by Sundance and Emmy Award-winner Lee Hirsch, the…
October, 24, 2013

Gotham Awards: Independent Lens Films Nominated for Best Doc and for Audience Award

Three Independent Lens films, Don't Stop Believin': Everyman's Journey, Blood Brother (which will air on PBS in January), and The New Black (airing next June), are all up for IFP Gotham Audience Awards, which "celebrates audience award winners from across the…
June, 18, 2013

Which Film Will Be This Season’s Audience Favorite? It’s Up to You!

Statues, laurels, trophies, medals, plaques, certificates ... there are plenty of awards to be won in the film business, but there is only ONE Independent Lens Audience Award, honoring our fans' favorite film of the season. Like audience awards at…
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June, 13, 2013

The Revolutionary Optimists Filmmakers on Finding Hope in Kolkata’s Slums

Amlan Ganguly is a visionary. This lawyer-turned-community activist is not only changing a neighborhood, but also changing the way its youngest residents envision their lives. In this character-driven and highly cinematic documentary, acclaimed filmmakers Nicole Newnham (The Rape of Europa,…
May, 21, 2013

Wonder Women! Inspires Wonder City Game

[caption id="attachment_4228" align="alignright" width="229"] Kristy Guevara-Flanagan and Kelcey Edwards[/caption] Originally posted on Beyond the Box. Wonder City has been developed as companion game to the PBS documentary feature, Wonder Women! The Untold Story of American Superheroines. While the film encourages young audiences to…
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April, 25, 2013

Director Marco Williams on the Making of The Undocumented

[caption id="attachment_3919" align="aligncenter" width="500"] Filmmaker Marco Williams, director of The Undocumented[/caption] Since 1998, more than two thousand dead bodies have been found in Arizona’s Sonora Desert — the remains of “border crossers” who perished en route to the United States…
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April, 12, 2013

What’s YOUR Superpower?

We’re all Wonder Women (or Men) inside, each with our own superpower. But sometimes, we daydream about being more than just a super-dad, super-banjo-strummer, or super-feminist. We want to levitate! Get the bad guys! Or maybe just become invisible to…
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April, 11, 2013

Filmmaker Kristy Guevara-Flanagan on the Making of Wonder Women!

Directed by Kristy Guevara-Flanagan and produced by Kelcey Edwards, Wonder Women! The Untold Story of American Superheroines airs Monday, April 15 at 10pm (check local listings). We recently spoke with Kristy Guevara-Flanagan about her experiences making the film, a fun and…
March, 15, 2013

PBS Correspondent Goes Rogue at SXSW … Hilarity Ensues

On Sunday, another South by Southwest (SXSW) will close its doors on the thousands of festival-goers, wrapping up nine full days of original music, independent films, and emerging technologies. With such a wide and varied audience, how can those of…
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February, 22, 2013

Ai Weiwei Sparks Social Media Flames in China

Ai Weiwei is a fearless Tweeter. In 140-character snippets, the gruff Chinese artist, activist, and the subject of Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry (airing Monday, Feb. 25, on Independent Lens) defends freedom of speech. Social media platforms are "like water and air,…
February, 19, 2013

Get Your Dose of History: 8 Documentaries for Black History Month

[caption id="attachment_10211" align="alignnone" width="1536"] More Than a Month Filmmaker Shukree Tighman dressed as a Union soldier[/caption] The most fascinating chapters of America’s past, including our stories of tragedy, pride, creativity, and triumph, are arguably contained in African American history. Black…
Black and white closeup shot of Whitney Young Jr. at microphone
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February, 13, 2013

A Cherished Last Letter of Civil Rights Leader Whitney Young, Jr.

Journalist Bonnie Boswell has many fond memories of her uncle Whitney Young, Jr., a pivotal behind-the-scenes player in the civil rights movement and the subject of her documentary, The Powerbroker: Whitney Young's Fight for Civil Rights. Even though he was…
January, 22, 2013

We’re Having Fun Behind the Scenes at Sundance

Can't make it to Sundance Film Festival this year? Neither could some of us at the office, and at least a few other people in the world. But tens of thousands of others have descended on the festival, and our…
January, 10, 2013

The Invisible War Nominated for Oscar!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7c6oOUd4Fvs We're thrilled to report that The Invisible War, a groundbreaking film exposing the epidemic of rape in the U.S. military, is one of five nominees for an Academy Award for best documentary feature. The film has already helped focus…
January, 2, 2013

10 Fun, Feel-Good Documentaries for the New Year

Yes, Virginia, documentaries can be uplifting -- even downright fun! Here's a list of 10 feel-good documentaries to get the new year off to a bright start. Some are major award winners. Others aren't necessarily the highest form of the…
December, 14, 2012

Moscow: A Nightmare of Inaccessibility for the Disabled

Lives Worth Living filmmakers Eric Neudel and Alison Gilkey recently returned from presenting their film in Moscow at Breaking Down Barriers, an international disability film festival. The festival is a celebration of diversity, showcasing films from across the globe that…
December, 10, 2012

The Waiting Room Makes Washington Post 2012 Top-10 Film List!

Independent Lens films continue to pile up incredible accolades and awards this month.  The latest: The Washington Post's Ann Hornaday just came out with her list of the top 10 films of  2012, and The Waiting Room ranked No. 3…
December, 7, 2012

How Will You Decide Your Person of the Year?

[caption id="attachment_2557" align="aligncenter" width="500"] Ai Weiwei is in the running for Time's Person of the Year, alongside contenders like the Mars Rover, various politicians, Jon Stewart, and Pussy Riot.[/caption] Time magazine this week announced the contenders for its 2012 Person…
December, 3, 2012

POV Announces the 25 Greatest Documentaries of All Time

[caption id="attachment_2509" align="aligncenter" width="500"] Which documentary won the most votes?[/caption] Your votes are in, the ballots have been counted, and sister series POV has announced the 25 Greatest Documentaries of All Time. Some may surprise you, others not so much.…
Nutayunean tribe
Lists
November, 21, 2012

Celebrate Native American Heritage Month with 8 Documentaries

November is Native American Heritage Month, but that wasn’t always the case. At one point, it was a single day to honor Native American history, and before that, there was no official government recognition at all. The history of the…
A doorman's white-gloved hands.
November, 12, 2012

Ten Documentaries about Poverty and Power

The current economy has given us an occasion to wonder how attainable the American dream is. If you start with nothing, can you actually pull yourself up by the bootstraps, Horatio-Alger style? Park Avenue: Money, Power & the American Dream…
November, 9, 2012

Election Season Extended (for Best Documentaries of All Time)

What does it mean to be the greatest? This week our sister series, POV, launched an ambitious survey which will culminate in a master list of the greatest documentaries of all time. Obviously, we have our own favorites (wink, wink…
Headshot of director Alex Gibney.
November, 8, 2012

Academy Award-Winner Alex Gibney’s Tale of Two Cities in One

We sat down with Academy Award-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney, director of Park Avenue: Money, Power & the American Dream, to talk about what motivated him to make this film. The documentary is part of Why Poverty? and premieres on Independent Lens on Monday, November 12 at…
November, 5, 2012

After Love Free or Die, Our Top Ten List of Religious Documentaries

As the first openly gay bishop, Gene Robinson is no stranger to controversy. He wore a bullet-proof vest to his consecration in 2003. Robinson stars in Love Free or Die (broadcast Oct. 29 on Independent Lens), a documentary that follows…
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November, 1, 2012

The Making of Solar Mamas

We sat down with Mette Heide, producer of Solar Mamas, to talk about why she and her filmmaking team chose this story, and what inspired them along the way. The film is part of Why Poverty? and Women and Girls…
October, 25, 2012

The Island President’s Jon Shenk on Turmoil in the Maldives

For documentary filmmakers, breaking news can be either a blessing or a curse. By the time Jon Shenk finished directing The Island President (premiering April 2013 on Independent Lens), his title character was no longer the island president. The military and…
June, 13, 2012

Chinese Delegation Pulls Out of Doc/Fest over Ai Weiwei Film

realscreen reports today that "[a] delegation of 10 Chinese commissioning editors has pulled out of attending Sheffield Doc/Fest at the last minute, after the UK festival refused demands from the Chinese Embassy in London to drop Alison Klayman’s doc Ai…
Two of the boys from Rich Hill
June, 8, 2012

LGBT Pride Month: 10 Films From the AIDS Crisis

June is LGBT Pride Month, and once again, we're giving in to the temptation to make a list! This year our LGBT feature film is We Were Here, a film about the AIDS years in San Francisco, when a community was…
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April, 5, 2012

The Making of Being Elmo, with Director Constance Marks

Being Elmo director Constance Marks began her filmmaking career over 30 years ago as an assistant editor for the renowned cinema verite pioneers David and Albert Maysles. For Being Elmo, she partnered with her cameraman husband James Miller and childhood…
April, 4, 2012

Bhutto Wins a Peabody Award; Public TV Scores Multiple Awards

Our heartiest congratulations go out to Mark Seigel and Duane Baughman on winning an esteemed Peabody Award for last season's Independent Lens documentary Bhutto. SO richly deserved! Other worthy winners from our friends around the public television community include: My…
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March, 1, 2012

Month-Long Women and Girls Lead Online Film Festival Kicks Off

Women and Girls Lead, a public media campaign designed to uplift, empower, and celebrate women who are making change around the world, is honoring Women's History Month with a month-long online film festival featuring many audience favorites from the Independent…
February, 25, 2012

Two Independent Lens Docs Nominated for Independent Spirit Awards

More awards season news for the Independent Lens family. The Film Independent Spirit Awards are also this weekend, and Independent Lens has two nominated films: Hell and Back Again is nominated in the Truer than Fiction category, and We Were…
December, 6, 2011

The Greatest Movie Montages — Got a Favorite?

Our good friends Kurt Norton and Paul Mariano who produced These Amazing Shadows (which airs on Independent Lens on Dec. 29) have posted a really cool video on their blog about the great art of the movie montage. And that's…
September, 19, 2011

Women & Girls Lead Coming to PBS This Fall

Independent Lens is honored to be a part of the innovative public media initiative Women and Girls Lead. The project seeks to use the power of documentary storytelling and the reach of public media to connect and inspire viewers around…
September, 6, 2011

Announcing our 10th Season of Remarkable Independents!

It's that time again! Time for the premiere of a new and glorious season of Independent Lens, with an eclectic and inspiring schedule full of independent documentaries guaranteed to surprise, entertain, and astound you. This season, we've got remarkable lineup…
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July, 22, 2011

ITVS Indies Showcase Celebrates 20 Years of Independents

Our parent organization, the Independent Television Service (ITVS), is celebrating its 20th anniversary! To honor the amazing filmmakers who have so inspired us in the past two decades, and to offer our amazing viewers -- without whom we wouldn't have…
Director Jeff Malmberg and Mark Hogancamp with their Marwencol alter egos. (Photo by Chris Shellen)
April, 25, 2011

Marwencol Director Reflects on a Man, His Dolls, and the Touch of Genius

Jeff Malmberg, director of Marwencol, took on much more than just a film project when he decided to shoot a documentary about Mark Hogancamp. Intrigued by a magazine article about Mark and his imaginary backyard universe, Jeff had to earn…
January, 4, 2011

The Spring Season is Chock Full of Indie Goodness

OK, so maybe we're not super excellent at keeping secrets, but we're excitable. Finally we can tell everyone about our whole spring schedule for Independent Lens! Check out some of the amazing new films we've got coming at you in…
December, 21, 2010

The Resurgence of the Documentary

Kenneth Turan, the Los Angeles Times film critic, devoted his year-end column to documentary films, which he says enjoyed "remarkable resurgence" in 2010: "It's also hardly a secret that the major studios have, with periodic exceptions, all but given up…
November, 24, 2010

What Film Goes Best with Turkey?

A happy Thanksgiving to all of you in PBS land from all of us here at Independent Lens. There's nothing we're more grateful for than our loyal, intelligent, thoughtful, and generous viewers. For this holiday weekend, we thought we'd see…