Blog

From the film "The Walk"; image courtesy Tri-Star Pictures
Film History
May, 27, 2016

Based on a True Story: 8 Documentaries that Inspired Feature Films

Sean Axmaker in Film History

True stories have been a prime inspiration for movies for as long as there have been movies. Early films recreated historical events and breaking news for eager audiences and films as disparate as I Am a Fugitive from a Chain…
Still of priest standing in front of outdoor cross in Robert Bresson's 1951 film Diary of a Country Priest
Lists
May, 6, 2016

Losing Your Religion: Nine Movies about Crises of Faith

Noel Murray in Lists

Abigail Disney’s documentary The Armor of Light takes an unusual but illuminating approach to the gun control debate. In the film, Reverend Rob Schenck — an evangelical Christian who gained some cachet on the right decades ago via his leadership of…
Horst van Wächter and Niklas Frank (l-r), with Philippe Sands in background
Beyond the Films
April, 27, 2016

Blood Guilt: 12 Movies about Healing after Heinous Crimes

Sean Axmaker in Beyond the Films

Niklas Frank and Horst von Wächter are the adult children of high-ranking Nazi officers. As we learn in My Nazi Legacy, their fathers sent tens of thousands of people to their deaths, and Niklas and Horst spent decades dealing with…
magician's gloved hands conjuring up magic and iphones
Beyond the Films
March, 24, 2016

Magic in the Modern Age: Do You (Still) Believe in Magic?

Lisa Ko in Beyond the Films

Legendary stage magician and escapologist James “The Amazing” Randi broke out of 22 jails during his career, going so far as to break Harry Houdini’s record of time spent inside a coffin submerged in water (104 minutes to Houdini’s 93).…
James "The Amazing" Randi stands casting large shadow against wall
Interviews
March, 23, 2016

Tyler Measom and Justin Weinstein Unlock the Mystery of James “The Amazing” Randi

Craig Phillips in Interviews

As famous a skeptic as he is a magician, James "The Amazing" Randi has led a life full of magic and mystery, as much off the stage as on it, and a naturally compelling subject for a documentary. Blessed with…
Artwork from Jodorowsky's Dune
Film History
March, 10, 2016

The Unmaking of: Stories of the Greatest Films Never Made

Sean Axmaker in Film History

The "making of" documentary has become a lively subgenre of nonfiction filmmaking, thanks in large part to the explosion of home video and the proliferation of cable channels in the past few decades. Once a purely promotional creation to run…
production of the first Wikipedia video tutorials (Hamburg, Germany)
Behind the Films
March, 4, 2016

Documentaries for Movie Geeks: Films About Films

Scott Weinberg in Behind the 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…
Crowd of protestors cheer.
Lists
February, 9, 2016

The Black Panthers Mixtape

Independent Lens in Lists

For The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution, which aired on Independent Lens, you can plug in, turn on, and get down with our curated Spotify playlist. The set joins the politically charged soul music of the '60s and 70's with…
Behind the Films
February, 5, 2016

Nelson George Captures the Poise of Misty Copeland to Tell a Ballerina’s Tale

Independent Lens in Behind the Films

Author, filmmaker, television producer, and critic Nelson George may have worn a lot of hats in his long career, but his love for music has been  constant throughout. He's published numerous non-fiction books on black music history as well as a series…
Ballerinas Raven Wilkinson and Misty Copeland hold hands.
Beyond the Films
February, 4, 2016

Breaking Barriers on Stage: African American Ballet Dancers Who Made History

Craig Phillips in Beyond the Films

As we learn in A Ballerina's Tale, Nelson George's new documentary about Misty Copeland's Eurocentric standards of body shape, muscle tone, and skin color excluded dancers who didn't fit the wan mold demanded of prima ballerinas. All that changed in the summer of…
Stephen, at home, explaining how you know when you're in love
Beyond the Films
January, 8, 2016

More Than Rain Man: Autism Portrayals on Screen

Noel Murray in Beyond the Films

For a long time, the Oscar-winning 1988 drama Rain Man wasn’t just the best-known representation of autism on film, it was a lot of people’s only frame of reference for autism spectrum disorders (ASD) in general. But over the past…
Cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond
Beyond the Films
January, 6, 2016

From the Archive: Cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond Talks Motion Picture Making

Independent Lens in Beyond the Films

In memory of Vilmos Zsigmond, the legendary cinematographer who died New Years Day, we reached into the Independent Lens archive for an interview Mr. Zsigmond gave us in June 2010 on the premiere of the documentary about Vilmos and his Hungarian…