Blog

October, 28, 2003

Shaolin Ulysses: Kungfu Monks in America

Independent Lens

The famous fighting monks of the Shaolin Temple have seen a resurgence throughout the world, aided in part by the popularity of kungfu movies starring Jet Li and the Academy Award-winning Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Narrated by Beau Bridges, Shaolin…
October, 14, 2003

Worst Possible Illusion: The Curiosity Cabinet of Vik Muniz

Independent Lens

Worst Possible Illusion: The Curiosity Cabinet of Vik Muniz is an exhilarating look at the work of the Brazilian-born contemporary conceptual artist and rising star Vik Muniz — sculptor, photographer, and self-proclaimed magician. Muniz, best known for his book Seeing…
May, 27, 2003

Hansel Mieth: Vagabond Photographer

Independent Lens

A look at the life of one of America’s great women photographers, one of the first staff photographers at LIFE magazine, whose Depression-era photos and commitment to social justice inspired concerned artists everywhere.
April, 22, 2003

Bird by Bird with Annie: A Portrait of Anne Lamott

Independent Lens

A profile of the best-selling author and laugh-out loud humorist Anne Lamott, this film follows her through a year of writing, teaching, and mothering. She shares her self-effacing and ruthlessly honest insights into such universal concerns as loss, alienation, bad…
Billie Holiday sings on stage.
April, 8, 2003

Strange Fruit

Independent Lens

Strange Fruit explores the history and legacy of a song unique in the annals of American music. Best-known from Billie Holiday's haunting 1939 rendition, the song "Strange Fruit" is a harrowing portrayal of the lynching of a black man in…
February, 25, 2003

Downside Up

Independent Lens

What happens when the smallest, poorest town in Massachusetts teams up with art world luminaries to build a modern art museum? Can big city conceptual artists and blue-collar natives find common ground and a common cause? That’s what filmmaker Nancy…
February, 18, 2003

On This Island

Independent Lens

On an isolated island off the coast of Maine, a disagreement about arts education threatens to tear apart a once close-knit community until a former Broadway producer attempts to heal the rift with an original musical based on the islanders'…
February, 11, 2003

Off the Charts: The Song-Poem Story

Independent Lens

An engaging look at the fascinating subculture of the song-poem industry, where a dream and a song come together as ordinary people mail in their poems to be set to music for a fee.
March, 29, 2001

Still Life with Animated Dogs

Independent Lens

In Still Life with Animated Dogs we meet Roosevelt, Ike, Johnson, and Spinnaker, the canine companions who helped shape Paul Fierlinger’s evolution as an artist and as a man. Vivid animation illustrates the adventures of the endearing dogs who shared…