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Audience Award laurels atop Jonathan Scott Power Trip image with Scott atop a roof with solar panels
Announcements
July, 7, 2021

And the Winner of the 2020-21 Independent Lens Audience Award Is…

Craig Phillips in Announcements

? UPDATE: Tens of thousands of votes later, the results are in and the viewers have spoken. In a very tight race, PBS viewers chose Jonathan Scott's Power Trip as the winner of the 2020-21 Independent Lens Audience Award. Congratulations to Jonathan…
5 people with various shades of skin tone sit together on the set of Soul! They are all wearing fabulous 1960s/70s outfits.
Announcements
December, 22, 2020

New Acclaimed Films Coming to Independent Lens in January

Craig Phillips in Announcements

The upcoming slate of films airing on Independent Lens on PBS starts in January with seven highly-acclaimed documentaries that reflect the ever-changing nature of the United States, highlighting women who led the way in workplace sexism —in offices, NFL playing…
the three women running for office, composite image for Represent
Announcements
September, 25, 2020

Independent Lens Fall Season Has 2020 Vision

Craig Phillips in Announcements

The upcoming slate of films airing on Independent Lens on PBS this fall is just one part of an incredible season coming up that will last through the Spring in epic fashion. The fall documentary will be extremely timely, covering…
A group of people with dark skin tone help to clean up a large pile of rubble.
Awards
June, 26, 2020

And the Winner of the 2019-2020 Audience Award is… (UPDATED)

Craig Phillips in Awards

Update (7/9): With voting now closed and a total of 13,331 votes, we are thrilled to announce the winner of the Independent Lens Audience Award: Decade of Fire Congrats to filmmakers Vivian Vázquez Irizarry, Gretchen Hildebran and Julia Steele Allen,…
A man with dark skin tone and a mustache, wearing a ball cap, is interviewed for the camera.
Announcements
March, 25, 2020

Next on PBS: 8 Stories About the People Shaping Our World

Craig Phillips in Announcements

"You can cut all the flowers but you cannot keep spring from coming," wrote poet Pablo Neruda. Spring has indeed come, and with it an amazing set of documentaries that will round out the rest of this season of Independent…
Announcements
January, 2, 2020

Coming to Independent Lens: Our Winter ’20 Slate Will Grab You

Craig Phillips in Announcements

Beginning in January 2020, unforgettable and acclaimed new stories are coming to Independent Lens on PBS, America's home for documentaries. From the story of a Somali family in Minnesota torn apart by a son's fateful decision, to Chicago for a look…
Decade of Fire, kids skating in the Bronx 1970s
Announcements
October, 2, 2019

Independent Lens Brings New Stories into Your Neighborhood for Fall Season

Craig Phillips in Announcements

This season, from fall to spring, Independent Lens presents a new group of award-winning films that will thrust viewers into the heart of conversations across America. We'd like to introduce you to the films airing this Fall and Winter, with Spring films…
Unrest signature image with Jen Brea getting a test on her brainwaves, including IL audience award graphic now
Announcements
June, 18, 2018

Make Your Voice Heard: Pick Your Favorite 2017-18 Independent Lens Film (Updated)

Craig Phillips in Announcements

It's that time of the year again: Now that Independent Lens has concluded another season, we need you to vote for the recipient of this year's Audience Award. Yes you, the audience! Vote for your favorite documentary from 2017-2018's award-winning…
Montage of images from each of 20 films from Independent Lens 2016-17 season
Announcements
June, 30, 2017

2016-17 Independent Lens Audience Award Poll! The Winner Is…

Craig Phillips in Announcements

It's time to vote for your own personal favorite from the just-concluded 2016-2017 season of Independent Lens. The voting period will run through 5 pm PT Friday, July 21. There were 20 films in this season that lasted from October through…
Independent Lens Audience Award 2016 Vote graphic
Awards
August, 15, 2016

Independent Lens Audience Award Survey!

Craig Phillips in Awards

Vote now for your own personal favorite from the just-concluded 2015-2016 season of Independent Lens. The voting period will run through 5 pm PT Monday, August 29. There were 21 films in this season that lasted from October through August,…
Two hands surround a playing card featuring the image of James "The Amazing" Randi in his younger days
Announcements
January, 6, 2016

Independent Lens Announces Winter-Spring 2016 Films

Craig Phillips in Announcements

Independent Lens, which recently won the IDA’s Best Curated Series Award for the third consecutive year, announced its 2016 Winter-Spring season lineup today. “These films amplify conversations happening across the country on issues like the rise of gun violence, racial…
July, 1, 2015

And the Winner of the 2014-2015 Independent Lens Audience Award Is…

Craig Phillips

The winner of this season's Independent Lens Audience Award, as chosen by voting viewers, is.... Kumu Hina! Interestingly, Kumu Hina is not the first Independent Lens film to win the Audience Award that is about hula dance: Men of Hula won…
Lists
June, 26, 2015

19 Memorable Faces of Independent Lens’ 2014-15 Season

Craig Phillips in Lists

As the old saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words, so rather than unleash many more words on you, here's a photo gallery reminding you of some of the memorable faces from this just-concluded season of Independent Lens. We thank you…
June, 24, 2015

Time to Vote! Independent Lens 2014-2015 Audience Award

Craig Phillips

The Independent Lens 2014-2015 season may have ended, but the Audience Award is heating up. Rate and vote for your favorite films from this past season on our Audience Awards page. In order to avoid ballot box stuffing, once your vote is…
June, 22, 2015

In the Shadow of Ebola Takes You to Liberia for One Family’s Story

Craig Phillips

Independent Lens presents the premiere online of In the Shadow of Ebola [watch now], a gripping short film set around the height of the Ebola crisis, but told from a highly personal point of view. The documentary by Gregg Mitman and Sarita Siegel…
May, 18, 2015

Johanna Hamilton Goes Back to 1971 to Find Burglars Who Revealed Illegal FBI Spying

Craig Phillips

1971: A year before the Watergate scandal sent shockwaves through the United States, with no end in sight to the Vietnam War, and anti-war protests intensifying. In that same year a group of ordinary citizens broke into an FBI office in Media, Pennsylvania. What…
Uncategorized
May, 13, 2015

1971 Pop Quiz

Craig Phillips in Uncategorized

The acclaimed film 1971 airs on Independent Lens on PBS next Monday, May 18 [check local listings]. But first, test yourself on all things 1971, from music to sports, politics to TV, with our new quiz. You don't have to have been…
Headshot of Born to Fly filmmaker Catherine Gund.
Uncategorized
May, 11, 2015

Catherine Gund “Flies” with Elizabeth Streb, Extreme Action Architect

Craig Phillips in Uncategorized

As the subject of her new film Born to Fly: Elizabeth Streb vs. Gravity, New York-based filmmaker Catherine Gund found one of the more dynamic artistic minds in a city not lacking for great art (Streb is a recipient of…
Samantha Jakus of STREB in flight apparatus.
Uncategorized
May, 8, 2015

Action Heroes of Dance: They Were Born to Fly

Craig Phillips in Uncategorized

[caption id="attachment_6887" align="alignleft" width="550"] STREB’s Samantha Jakus runs down the side of Bergdorf Goodman Building in NYC. Photo Courtesy Bergdorf Goodman.[/caption] In the film Born to Fly, we meet not only the one-of-a-kind “extreme action architect,” choreographer Elizabeth Streb, but…
Dancer bends over backwards on a spinning floor to keep his balance.
Lists
May, 7, 2015

Art on the Edge: Extreme Dance, Performance, and More

Craig Phillips in Lists

Elizabeth Streb was once called the "Evel Knievel of dance," and our documentary Born to Fly: Elizabeth Streb vs. Gravity captures her life as an "extreme action architect." Her choreography, which she calls POPACTION, "intertwines the disciplines of dance, athletics, boxing, rodeo, the…
Drawing representing Hawaiian mahu, or third gender.
Lists
April, 30, 2015

Hawaiian Music: More Than Just Hula (But Also Hula)

Craig Phillips in Lists

[caption id="attachment_6841" align="alignnone" width="600"] Hina performing with some of her students, from Kumu Hina[/caption] In tandem with the PBS film Kumu Hina, we created this Spotify playlist compiling some of the greatest Hawaiian music, from Hula to slack guitar, ukulele, and beyond.…
Portrait of Kasey, one of the formerly-homeless teens from The Homestretch.
Where Are They Now?
April, 13, 2015

Update: Kasey Checks In

Craig Phillips in Where Are They Now?

Kasey, one of the three formerly homeless teens portrayed in The Homestretch who are striving to make a better future for themselves, checked in just today to give us all an update on how she's doing. After you watch the…
Beyond the Films
March, 23, 2015

I Identify: What Forces Determine Your Identity?

Craig Phillips in Beyond the Films

In Little White Lie, filmmaker Lacey Schwartz uncovers an identity-altering family secret, and then embarks on a journey of discovery as she contends with her new sense of self. The film challenges us to reconsider the notion that identity is a stable, clearly-defined…
Archival family photo from the Digital Diaspora Family Roadshow
Uncategorized
February, 16, 2015

Black Family History Through a Lens

Craig Phillips in Uncategorized

Archival family photo from the Digital Diaspora Family Roadshow A wonderful companion piece to Thomas Allen Harris's film Through a Lens Darkly: Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People is his Digital Diaspora Family Reunion project — a roadshow connecting communities and history through…
Uncategorized
January, 12, 2015

Darius Clark Monroe’s Evolution from Criminal to Filmmaker

Craig Phillips in Uncategorized

[caption id="attachment_6221" align="alignnone" width="600"] Filmmaker Darius Clark Monroe[/caption] Darius Clark Monroe's own evolution from loving son, to incarcerated criminal, and then back to student and filmmaker, is quite a journey. In his documentary Evolution of a Criminal, he points the…
Test Your Knowledge
January, 9, 2015

Evolution of a Criminal: Juvenile Justice Quiz

Craig Phillips in Test Your Knowledge

  Alongside the PBS documentary Evolution of a Criminal, we thought it'd be interesting to dig a little deeper into the topic of juvenile criminality in America. To step back for a moment, the Indie Spirit Award-nominated film itself is by…
Uncategorized
December, 6, 2014

And the winner of IDA Award for Best Curated Series goes to…

Craig Phillips in Uncategorized

At Friday night’s 30th annual IDA Documentary Awards, given out every year by the International Documentary Association to recognize and honor outstanding documentary films and filmmakers, Independent Lens was given the great honor of winning the 2014 Best Curated Series…
Uncategorized
October, 27, 2014

Is Time Itself Brakeless?

Craig Phillips in Uncategorized

The Nature of Time “I know this much: that there is objective time, but also subjective time, the kind you wear on the inside of your wrist, next to where the pulse lies. And this personal time, which is the…
Uncategorized
October, 1, 2014

Independent Lens Wins 3 News & Documentary Emmy Awards

Craig Phillips in Uncategorized

Cover your ears, it’s horn tooting time here! Last night at the News & Documentary Emmy Awards ceremony, Independent Lens films won three Emmy Awards, for Editing; Investigative Journalism, Long-Form; and Best Documentary. Independent Lens had been nominated for 10 News &…
Uncategorized
September, 4, 2014

Independent Lens Announces New Fall Slate

Craig Phillips in Uncategorized

[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…
Leveled Philadelphia row houses after the MOVE bombings
July, 11, 2014

From RealScreen: Archive Masterclass on the Making of the Film

Craig Phillips

Super piece by Adam Benzine on Let the Fire Burn's extensive, exhaustive archival process, with insight from filmmaker Jason Osder: "Archive masterclass: Making Let the Fire Burn'."  The film had its television premiere on Independent Lens in May. The filmmaker…
Uncategorized
June, 30, 2014

The Winner of 2013-2014 Independent Lens Audience Award Is…

Craig Phillips in Uncategorized

The votes are in and Independent Lens viewers have spoken! Don’t Stop Believin’: Everyman’s Journey is the winner of the Independent Lens 2013-2014 Audience Award. Congratulations to filmmaker Ramona S. Diaz and her team. The music-filled film [official site] about Journey’s new…
June, 16, 2014

Vote for the 2013-2014 Independent Lens Audience Award!

Craig Phillips

Now that the Independent Lens 2013-2014 season is officially concluded, voting for the Audience Award is heating up. If you haven't already, rate and vote for your favorite films from this past season by going to our Audience Awards page.…
Uncategorized
May, 16, 2014

Filmmaker Roger Ross Williams on God Loves Uganda

Craig Phillips in Uncategorized

Roger Ross Williams won an Academy Award for his short documentary Music by Prudence, which told the moving story of 21-year-old Zimbabwean singer-songwriter Prudence Mabhena, who was born severely disabled and has struggled to overcome poverty and discrimination. For his first feature-length documentary God…
A Philadelphia police officer observes the rubble after the MOVE bombings
Where Are They Now?
May, 12, 2014

The MOVE Bombings 29 Years Later

Craig Phillips in Where Are They Now?

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="594"] MOVE members and police during the 1978 confrontation outside MOVE headquarters.[/caption] It's the week of the 29th anniversary of the MOVE bombings, and for those who were in the middle of it and are still with us,…
Screenshot of Decisions on Deadline game interface.
Test Your Knowledge
May, 6, 2014

Decisions on Deadline: Journalism Game

Craig Phillips in Test Your Knowledge

Connected to Samantha Grant's film A Fragile Trust: Plagiarism, Power, and Jayson Blair at The New York Times, which premiered this week on Independent Lens (check local listings to see if it's airing again in your area), we've collaborated with the filmmakers…
Clarence Carter sings into mic at Muscle Shoals studios.
Uncategorized
April, 18, 2014

A Musical Journey Through Muscle Shoals

Craig Phillips in Uncategorized

The word “magic” is mentioned a lot in Muscle Shoals, a mesmerizing documentary that tries to explain, or at least place in context, the extraordinary success of FAME (founded by producer Rick Hall in the late 1950s) and Muscle Shoals…
April, 14, 2014

Trials of Muhammad Ali Simulcast: Online Screening and Live Chat

Craig Phillips

The Trials of Muhammad Ali Exclusive Screening & Live Chat with Director Bill Siegel Monday April 14, 10pm ET/7 PT Independent Lens, Kartemquin Films, and Eight Arizona are trying something new. For the first time ever, we're hosting an online…
Behind the Films
April, 7, 2014

Meet the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble

Craig Phillips in Behind the Films

Enjoy this collection of additional videos and links to check out more from the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble, who are the center of Reuben Atlas's new Independent Lens documentary Brothers Hypnotic, premiering tonight April 7 at 10pm on PBS (check local…
March, 26, 2014

Medora T-Shirt Contest!

Craig Phillips

Medora, which premieres on Independent Lens next Monday, March 31st at 10 PM (check local listings), is the story of a struggling Indiana community and its woebegotten high school basketball team trying to get that elusive win. "Medora scores some winning…
January, 6, 2014

At Berkeley Shares National Society of Film Critics Best Non-Fic Honor

Craig Phillips

At Berkeley, which will be broadcast on Independent Lens on January 13, was just named co-recipient of Best Non-Fiction Film of 2013 by the National Society of Film Critics (NSFC), sharing the honor with The Act of Killing. The full vote breakdown…
Headshot of How to Survive a Plague filmmaker David France
Uncategorized
December, 30, 2013

How to Survive a Plague: Q&A with David France

Craig Phillips in Uncategorized

"The 2nd best film of the year" - Wesley Morris, Boston Globe Top Ten Movies of 2012. "It’s hard to overstate how ingenious France’s formal choices are...The material has been shaped in an artful manner that devastates, rouses, and shames." "Riveting...moving…
Uncategorized
December, 20, 2013

Can We Eat Sushi “Responsibly?”

Craig Phillips in Uncategorized

Jiro Dreams of Sushi had those of us here at Independent Lens dreaming not only of sushi, but of fish in general, and the question that keeps coming up: Can we eat sushi "responsibly?" We live in a more enlightened age when…
December, 17, 2013

Independent Lens Announces Winter/Spring 2014 Season

Craig Phillips

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="594"] From Medora.[/caption] We're excited to officially announce the Independent Lens Winter/Spring 2014 lineup, the second half of our current season, presenting a varied selection of independent docs from both first-time filmmakers and familiar names like Frederick Wiseman…
Where Are They Now?
December, 16, 2013

Playwright: Where Are They Now?

Craig Phillips in Where Are They Now?

While they may come from different backgrounds and different parts of the country, both talented young playwrights featured in Robert Levi's film Playwright: From Page to Stage seem to be on the same path toward having a long and prolific career.…
November, 26, 2013

Women and Girls Lead Presents Young Lakota Online Encore and Live Chat

Craig Phillips

Since 1990, every U.S. President has declared the month of November as Native American Heritage Month, a time to celebrate and honor the contributions, culture, history, and traditions of American Indians and Alaska Natives. This commemorative month also provides a…
Uncategorized
November, 25, 2013

Young Lakota: Q&A with Filmmakers Rose Rosenblatt and Marion Lipschutz

Craig Phillips in Uncategorized

Filmmaking duo Marion Lipschutz and Rose Rosenblatt are no strangers to reproductive rights-themed documentaries. Their award-winning work includes Live Free or Die (POV, 2000), about a New Hampshire OB-GYN on the frontlines of the “abortion wars, and The Education of…
Indian Relay filmmaker Charles Dye
Interviews
November, 14, 2013

Indian Relay: Q&A with Filmmaker Charles Dye

Craig Phillips in Interviews

Filmmaker Charles Dye moved around a lot growing up, but always in the West: New Mexico, California, Texas, Arizona — and it was in this last place where he went to high school and befriended members of local tribes, sparking a more…
Uncategorized
October, 25, 2013

“I’m Graduating/I Graduated Because…”

Craig Phillips in Uncategorized

  The Graduates/Los Graduados offers a first-hand perspective of the challenges facing many Latino high school students. While you'll be hearing from the six students in the film itself (which premieres on PBS Monday, October 28 and concludes November 4),…
Uncategorized
October, 21, 2013

The Waiting Room Bonus Videos: More People, More Perspectives

Craig Phillips in Uncategorized

  All of these clips come courtesy of Waiting Room filmmaker Peter Nicks and his "Storytelling Project," which is found on the official site for the film. Consider these mini-features "bonus material" to accompany the main feature, adding extra layers to…
October, 1, 2013

Don’t Stop OVEE-ing: Online Screening of Everyman’s Journey

Craig Phillips

Few bands hold the same iconic stature in American music lore as Journey. Decades of chart-topping hits and performances played on stages across the world. Following on the heels of last night's Independent Lens broadcast premiere of Don't Stop Believin': Everyman's…