Blog

October, 16, 2007

Wordplay

Independent Lens

Known to millions of crossword die-hards as National Public Radio’s Puzzle Master, New York Times puzzle editor Will Shortz has built a career on studying, creating, and editing puzzles. Wordplay puts the spotlight on this crossword hero and introduces many…
La Lupe
June, 5, 2007

La Lupe Queen of Latin Soul

Independent Lens

A rebel and innovator, pop singer Lupe Yoli, otherwise known as La Lupe or La Yiyiyi, was renowned for her emotional performance style. Her renditions of classics such as “My Way,” “Fever” and “Going Out of My Head” were famous…
Jimmy Mirikitani
May, 8, 2007

The Cats of Mirikitani

Independent Lens

“Make art not war” is Jimmy Mirikitani’s motto. This 80-year-old Japanese American artist was born in Sacramento and raised in Hiroshima, but by 2001 he is living on the streets of New York with the twin towers of the World…
Vermeer's The Concert
March, 20, 2007

Stolen

Independent Lens

It was the most expensive art heist in American history. In March 1990, two thieves disguised as Boston police officers gained entrance to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and successfully plundered $500 million worth of art. Among the 13 priceless…
A man stands in front of a graffiti wall
February, 20, 2007

Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes

Independent Lens

Take an in-depth look at masculinity in rap music and hip-hop culture — where creative genius, poetic beauty, and mad beats collide with misogyny, violence, and homophobia through interviews with aspiring rappers and fans at hip-hop events throughout the country.
February, 6, 2007

Billy Strayhorn: Lush Life

Independent Lens

As Duke Ellington's co-composer, arranger, and right-hand man, Billy Strayhorn wrote some of the greatest American music of the 20th century.  But as a gay man in the ’40s and ’50s, Strayhorn had to lead a discreet existence, while Ellington…
December, 19, 2006

Revolucion: Five Visions

Independent Lens

Revolucion: Five Visions reframes the Cuban revolution through the art of photography, telling the personal stories of five photographers whose lives and work span nearly five decades of Cuban history. Shot on 24P hi-definition video by Mexico’s premiere director of…
December, 12, 2006

A Sad Flower in the Sand

Independent Lens

A Sad Flower in the Sand is the first major film documentary about a largely unsung writer of the 20th century: John Fante, the renegade author whose highly autobiographical novels illustrate his deep-rooted love of Los Angeles and his struggles…
November, 7, 2006

Paul Conrad: Drawing Fire

Independent Lens

Narrated by Tom Brokaw, Paul Conrad: Drawing Fire pays tribute to a legendary journalist and artist who epitomizes the fiercely independent voice that has been vanishing from American news media in recent years.
October, 31, 2006

Muskrat Lovely

Independent Lens

Muskrat Lovely follows eight beauty contestants in the weeks leading to the 50th crowning of Miss Outdoors in an attempt to answer how a beauty pageant and a muskrat skinning contest came to co-exist.
October, 24, 2006

The World According to Sesame Street

Independent Lens

Children’s education is more than just ABCs and 123s. With today’s global landscape dominated by such pressing issues as poverty, human rights, AIDS and ethnic genocide, how can the world’s most-watched children’s television show bridge cultures while remaining socially relevant?…
May, 2, 2006

Music from the Inside Out

Independent Lens

Featuring the musicians of The Philadelphia Orchestra, Music from the Inside Out weaves together a mosaic of the stories, ideas, experiences and music making that form the heart of these musicians’ lives, inside and outside the concert hall.