Blog

February, 24, 2009

The Order of Myths

Independent Lens

The first Mardi Gras in America was held in Mobile, Alabama in 1703. Three hundred and five years later, the city’s annual Carnival is split down the middle, with separate but not quite equal celebrations — one for whites and…
January, 6, 2009

Helvetica

Independent Lens

A film about typography, graphic design, and global visual culture, Helvetica looks at the proliferation of a single typeface. Ostensibly a film about a typeface, takes a deeper look into the role of the graphic designer since World War II.
December, 30, 2008

Operation Filmmaker

Independent Lens

Operation Filmmaker is the story of how well-intentioned American filmmakers bend over backwards to help an aspiring film student in war-torn Iraq achieve his dream of working on a real Hollywood movie. But nothing goes as planned.
A woman on stage wearing a red dress and head scarf
December, 23, 2008

Grey Gardens: From East Hampton to Broadway

Independent Lens

Grey Gardens, the Tony award-winning Broadway musical, was developed three decades after the Maysles film of the same name debuted. The musical is the ultimate homage to the quirky and rebellious Beales. Edith Beale and her daughter Edie turned their…
December, 16, 2008

Wonders Are Many: The Making of Doctor Atomic

Independent Lens

Theirs was a project so cloaked in secrecy that not even Vice President Truman knew it existed — a team of top scientists from around the world, assembled high on a mesa in New Mexico, were brought together in 1941…
December, 9, 2008

Doc

Independent Lens

Renaissance man and crazy genius, Harold Louis “Doc” Humes was an acclaimed novelist and the originator of The Paris Review, which became perhaps the greatest American literary institution ever. Now almost entirely forgotten, Doc’s was a life crammed full of…
November, 6, 2008

Knee Deep

Independent Lens

Follow the true crime story of Josh Osborne, a sheltered Maine farm boy who attempts to save the family farm by plotting to kill his mother, in this satiric study of rural American values wrapped in an attempted murder mystery.
June, 10, 2008

The Cool School

Independent Lens

How do you build an art scene from scratch — and not lose your soul in the process? The Cool School is the story of the Ferus Gallery, which nurtured Los Angeles’s first significant post-war artists between 1957 and 1966.…
Men in grass skirts perform a traditional hula dance.
May, 6, 2008

Na Kamalei: The Men of Hula

Independent Lens

Follow the journey of legendary teacher Robert Cazimero and the only all-male hula school in Hawaii as they celebrate their 30th anniversary and prepare to compete at the world’s largest hula festival.
Jock Soto
April, 8, 2008

Water Flowing Together

Independent Lens

Water Flowing Together is an intimate portrait of an important American artist, New York City Ballet’s Jock Soto, one of the most influential modern ballet dancers. Soto graced the stage of the New York State Theater for 24 years, partnering…
April, 1, 2008

Companeras

Independent Lens

Compañeras is an intimate profile of America’s first all-female mariachi band: Mariachi Reyna de Los Angeles. Since 1994, this 12-member group has been taking on a male-dominated musical tradition and building the popularity of mariachi music. Alternating between heart-stirring performances…
November, 13, 2007

Miss Navajo

Independent Lens

Following pageant contestants in their quest for the Miss Navajo Nation crown, and featuring personal stories of recent winners, Miss Navajo is a unique celebration of womanhood.