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production of the first Wikipedia video tutorials (Hamburg, Germany)
Behind the Films
March, 4, 2016

Documentaries for Movie Geeks: Films About Films

Once you've watched a beloved movie two or three times, you start to crave a little more information about the film's conception, production, and cultural impact, among other things. So you hit the internet to read a few articles or…
Uncategorized
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,…
Uncategorized
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…
Uncategorized
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…
Uncategorized
April, 2, 2013

A Letter from Kind Hearted Woman’s Robin Poor Bear

Part One of Kind Hearted Woman, a pillar program of the Women and Girls Lead campaign, premiered last night during a special Independent Lens and FRONTLINE co-presentation. Viewers met Robin Poor Bear and her family through the lens of independent filmmaker David Sutherland. The…
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…
Uncategorized
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…
September, 24, 2012

Half the Sky: Addressing Maternal Mortality

In many developing countries, pregnancy may as well be considered a death sentence. With the premiere of Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide just a week away, we felt it was the perfect time to provide…
Where Are They Now?
September, 18, 2012

Lee Gorewitz, Subject of You’re Looking at Me Like I Live Here and I Don’t: 1933–2012

We learned that Lee Gorewitz, the magnetic, philosophical, and feisty subject of last season's film You're Looking at Me Like I Live Here and I Don't passed away on Thursday, September 13, 2012. In the film, Lee welcomed us into…
July, 25, 2012

Team Wyman-Haworth Talk About the Adventure of Making Strong!

We love when a filmmaker and her subject drop in at our offices, especially when they are as funny and charming as these two! Julie Wyman, whose film Strong! premieres on Independent Lens tomorrow, July 26, at 10 PM (check…
Where Are They Now?
May, 30, 2012

Highlights from Hell and Back Again Screening with Sgt. Nathan Harris and Ashley Harris

On Tuesday, May 30, we hosted a one-time live online screening of Hell and Back Again with the subject of the film, Sgt. Nathan Harris and his wife Ashley present to take questions. We were so moved by the experience,…
Where Are They Now?
May, 15, 2012

Update! See What Has Become of the Nomad Family Portrayed in Summer Pasture

Locho, Yama, and Pale Chubby Baby ... where are they now? Lynn True, co-director of Summer Pasture, provided us with these fantastic video updates from the Tibetan plateau in which we discover what has happened to the nomad family in…
Where Are They Now?
May, 4, 2012

Video Extras and Updates About the Ponces of Circo

If you've seen Circo, you might be wondering whatever happened to Tino and his wife, Ivonne after she left, and of course the children, the extended family, and the circus itself. We certainly wanted to know what had happened to…
April, 30, 2012

Deep Inside Mexico, Filmmaker Finds Remnants of a Rich but Endangered Culture

Aaron Schock wanted to make a documentary about Mexico that wasn't about immigration, for a change. While scouting for subjects in the rural communities off the beaten path, he happened upon a traveling circus, and the rest is, well, Circo.…
April, 25, 2012

Capturing the Last Vestiges of an Iconic American Symbol

Montana filmmaker Doug Hawes-Davis lives in a place where at one time, bison outnumbered people by more than two to one. Now the embattled animal — a common symbol of the American West — is clinging to its last vestiges…
Where Are They Now?
April, 24, 2012

Facing the Storm: A Buffalo (News) Roundup!

To celebrate Earth Day, we ask, "Where do the buffalo roam?" Facing the Storm: Story of the American Bison (airing April 26, check local listings) follows the American West’s relationship with the largest land mammal on the continent. In the early…
Uncategorized
April, 23, 2012

Diversity in TV: Lives Worth Living Screening, Panel at the Home of Emmys

Earlier this season we aired the documentary Lives Worth Living about one of the most significant and least recognized civil rights movements in American history: the struggle for access and equality for the disabled. Tomorrow that film will be screened…
Where Are They Now?
April, 17, 2012

The Resurrection of the Electric Car Film Franchise

Chris Paine's 2006 film Who Killed the Electric Car was, he thought, an elegy for an idea that wasn't so much ahead of its time, but rather ahead of Detroit's willingness to break free from the fossil fuel interests to…
April, 12, 2012

Meet Septentrional — Video Interview with the Band

We caught up with filmmaker Whitney Dow and some members of Septentrional while they were in New York this week. The band is on a mini-tour in New York, playing at the Maranatha Auditorium in Queens on Friday, at the…
April, 6, 2012

Playlist: Listen to a Sampling of Popular Haitian Music

"Septentrional is the Buena Vista Social Club of Haiti." We keep hearing this comparison as we prepare for the premiere of When the Drum is Beating, premiering April 12, 2012 at 10 PM on Independent Lens (check your local listings).…
Uncategorized
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…
Behind the Films
March, 30, 2012

The Inner Pulse of Alzheimer’s

This week's premiere of Scott Kirschenbaum's You're Looking at Me Like I Live Here and I Don't has prompted an outpouring of stories from our viewers about the devastating disease. We caught up with the composer of the film's score,…
You're Looking at Me
Interviews
March, 27, 2012

Making a Film About Alzheimer’s From the Patient’s P.O.V.

[caption id="attachment_945" align="alignleft" width="200"] Filmmaker Scott Kirschenbaum[/caption] This week's film, You're Looking at Me Like I Live Here and I Don't, premieres Thursday, March 29 at 10 PM (check local listings). The film, by director Scott Kirschenbaum, is a portrait…
More Than a Month filmmaker Shukree Tilghman
Interviews
February, 15, 2012

Shukree Tilghman Wants to End (the Way We Think About) Black History Month

Shukree Tilghman saw Morgan Freeman on 60 Minutes in 2006 say that he believed Black History Month shouldn't exist, because it was insulting to relegate an entire race's history to just one month. It resonated with the young man, so…
February, 6, 2012

Contextualizing the Black Power Movement for a New Generation

Göran Olssen is something of an accidental anthropologist. When he unearthed reels of footage from Swedish television crews in the United States in the 1960s and 1970s, he stumbled on a unique perspective of a controversial period in American history.…
February, 2, 2012

Sharon La Cruise Discusses Daisy Bates, “a Different Kind of Hero”

Premiering tonight, February 2 on Independent Lens (check your local listings), Daisy Bates: First Lady of Little Rock examines the life and legacy of Daisy Bates, who organized nine African American children to integrate Central High School in the Arkansas…
January, 20, 2012

Dr. Angela Davis Reflects on the Black Power Movement

Earlier this month, Independent Lens launched a slate of films celebrating Black History at the Television Critics Association in Los Angeles. While at the event, the series teamed up with PBS NewsHour's Hari Sreenivasan to interview many of the filmmakers…
Where Are They Now?
January, 1, 2012

Remembering Wangari Maathai

Lisa Merton and Alan Dater, the producers of Taking Root: The Vision of Wangari Maathai, attended the Nobel laureate and environmental activist's funeral in Kenya in October. Merton offered Independent Lens this report on Maathai's legacy. Taking Root will be…
December, 25, 2011

A Love Letter to Celluloid Penned by Two Doc Makers

Paul Mariano and Kurt Norton are co-founders of Gravitas Docufilms in California, and the producers of These Amazing Shadows, which made its debut on Independent Lens on Dec. 29, 2011 (check local listings). Their film is a departure for both…
December, 22, 2011

Behind the Scenes of The Woodmans with C. Scott Willis and Lois Vossen

This week marks the premiere of The Woodmans, a film by C. Scott Willis about a family of successful artists and the fallout from the death of their youngest and most celebrated member. Francesca Woodman was a talented, visionary, and…
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…
B&W photo of Jerry Rothwell, director of Donor Unknown
Interviews
October, 17, 2011

Jerry Rothwell Explores the Meaning of Family in Donor Unknown

Jerry Rothwell is a documentary filmmaker whose work includes the award-winning feature docs Heavy Load (IFC/ITVS/BBC), about a group of people with learning disabilities who form a punk band; and Deep Water (Pathe/FilmFour/UK Film Council, co‐directed with Louise Osmond), about Donald…
May, 17, 2011

Ethnobiology Enthusiast Filmmaker versus MOTHRA!

We caught up with Jessica Oreck, the director of Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo, to talk about her maiden voyage into documentary filmmaking. For a young woman who spent a lifetime fascinated with bugs and movies, Oreck's film seems almost like…
May, 5, 2011

The Danger and Pathos of Shooting the BHUTTO Doc

The day after Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, political consultant and film producer and director Duane Baughman was on the phone with his colleague Mark Siegel, who had been a close personal friend and confidante of Bhutto's. In…
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…
April, 12, 2011

For Your Tuesday: Basquiat, and a Live Chat with Our Artists Month Filmmakers

In celebration of Artists Month, we are hosting a live chat today in collaboration with PBS NewsHour's Art Beat and ITVS. Join us RIGHT HERE for a discussion about creativity, transformation, outsider art, and the love of great storytelling with…
April, 1, 2011

Unearthing the Miraculous in a Far Away Land

Amanda Pope and Tchavdar Georgiev discovered a book at a flea market in Moscow about Russian avant-garde art that miraculously survived Soviet censorship. That chance encounter led to many years traveling back and forth between Los Angeles, Moscow, and Uzbekistan,…
Cyntoia Brown calls her adoptive mother, Ellenette Brown, to tell her she "Got Life."
February, 25, 2011

Me Facing Life: Seeking Redemption in Cyntoia’s Story

Dan Birman spent six years capturing the evolution and nuances of a case that is both depressingly common and refreshingly multifaceted. He met 16-year-old Cyntoia Brown after she murdered a man. Instead of a lost cause, he found a very…
February, 4, 2011

When I Rise Filmmakers Talk Civil Rights, Opera, and Tacos

Part of our slate for African American History Month, When I Rise premieres on Independent Lens Tuesday, February 8 on PBS. As we do with all of our premieres, we asked the filmmakers to sit down and answer a few…
December, 16, 2010

Behind the Scenes with Danny Alpert, Director of The Calling

The Calling is a two-night, four-hour special event on PBS Monday, December 20 and Tuesday, December 21 at 9 PM (check local listings). We sat down with Director Danny Alpert to talk about the intense and long process of creating…
Bill and Turner Ross
December, 9, 2010

45365’s Ross Bros Talk About Capturing Fleeting Moments

Bill and Turner Ross have been hailed as up-and-coming auteurs for the fly-on-the-wall vérité style with which they made their debut film, 45365, which premieres on Independent Lens on Tuesday, December 14 (check local listings). The film, which Roger Ebert…
November, 19, 2010

Floyd County, USA: Digging Deep for Coal Doc

Filmmakers Sally Rubin and Jen Gilomen shared with Independent Lens the arduous process of making Deep Down and the profound rewards of doing what you love with someone you trust.  What impact do you hope Deep Down will have? We…
November, 16, 2010

Lost Sparrow director: ‘If I had known what I was getting myself into, I wouldn’t have made the film.’

Bobby and Tyler Billing ran away on a Monday. Their bodies were discovered on the train tracks on Tuesday. They were buried on Wednesday. Their family moved to their summer home on Thursday and barely spoke of the boys again.…
Interviews
November, 12, 2010

Lost Sparrow Director Chris Billing Discusses Excavating Family Secrets

Journalist and filmmaker Chris Billing talked to us about making Lost Sparrow, a deeply personal film about the secrets that killed his brothers and tore his family apart. The film premieres on Independent Lens on Tuesday, November 16 on PBS…