Blog

Kids in Rose Street, Baltimore, in Charm City
Beyond the Films
April, 16, 2019

What “The Wire” Got Right, and Wrong, About Baltimore (and How “Charm City” Fills in the Rest)

Independent Lens in Beyond the Films

By Lee Gardner Baltimoreans who venture beyond the I-695 beltway always know it’s coming. We meet someone from another city, or another country. They find out we’re from Baltimore, and after a suitably polite length of get-to-know-you chat, they bring…
Shen Man and Dabao looking at live streaming on a phone, in People's Republic of Desire
Behind the Films
February, 20, 2019

Director Explores Live Streaming Revolution and How Technology Affects Human Happiness

Craig Phillips in Behind the Films

Technology executive-turned-filmmaker Hao Wu takes a raw and human approach to storytelling in an era when culture evolves online, and for his very first feature film, People's Republic of Desire Wu won a SXSW Film Festival Grand Jury Prize--pretty impressive…
Live streaming star Shen Man at her computer during a live stream
Beyond the Films
February, 20, 2019

Is This Real Life: The Live Streaming Craze Explained

Independent Lens in Beyond the Films

By Siyi Chen When my dad, a small businessman from Southeast China, asked me, his social media-savvy daughter, how to utilize the internet to help sell his agricultural products, the first thing that came to mind was live streaming. “It’s…
Copyright IDIOM Film, Courtesy RaMell Ross; Family at hospital, from Hale County This Morning, This Evening
Behind the Films
February, 7, 2019

RaMell Ross Charts “the Visual Story of Blackness” in Oscar-Nominated Doc

Craig Phillips in Behind the Films

Just one year after RaMell Ross' Hale County This Morning, This Evening won a Special Jury Award at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival, the filmmaker will follow his film's television debut on PBS by awaiting the Academy Awards, where it is…
Director Morgan Neville
Interviews
February, 1, 2019

Five Questions About Fred Rogers with Morgan Neville

Craig Phillips in Interviews

"When I met Joanne Rogers, I told her I wanted to make a film not about Fred Rogers’ story but about his ideas," filmmaker Morgan Neville wrote about Won't You Be My Neighbor? "She smiled and said that sounded pretty good,…
Elderly African American woman standing in front of a colorful quilt.
January, 31, 2019

While I Yet Live

Independent Lens

In this short film, five acclaimed African American quilters from Gee’s Bend, Alabama, talk about love, religion and the fight for civil rights as they continue the tradition of quilting that originally brought them together.
Black memorabilia figurines
Interviews
January, 30, 2019

The Challenge of Making a Film About Racist Relics

Craig Phillips in Interviews

Filmmaker and teacher Chico Colvard's first feature doc, Family Affair, premiered at Sundance and was the first film acquired by Oprah Winfrey for her cable channel, OWN. The searingly personal documentary explored his family's own troubled history that ultimately had a message…
Eugene Jarecki interviewing Dan Rather for "The King"
Behind the Films
January, 24, 2019

Three Things About “The King,” with Eugene Jarecki and Steven Soderbergh

Craig Phillips in Behind the Films

Documentary filmmaker Eugene Jarecki's pedigree is impressive. He has twice won the Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize and the Peabody Award for: The House I Live In, his 2013 film about America’s War on Drugs (which had its broadcast premiere…
Elvis Presley's Rolls-Royce parks in front of a row house, in The King
Beyond the Films
January, 23, 2019

Elvis and the Death of the American Dream, Through Movies

Sean Axmaker in Beyond the Films

Elvis Presley is ostensibly the subject of The King, Eugene Jarecki's expansive road movie of a documentary. The award-winning director drives Presley's 1963 Rolls-Royce across the US, from Mississippi and Memphis to Nashville, New York, Las Vegas, Hollywood, and elsewhere,…
RUMBLE director Catherine Bainbridge, center rear, with members of Ulali
Interviews
January, 11, 2019

RUMBLE Filmmakers Go Deep into the Indigenous Foundations of Rock

Craig Phillips in Interviews

The making of RUMBLE was a team effort, all of them passionate about bringing an important story to the world. Director-producer Catherine Bainbridge and co-director Alfonso Maiorana worked with Executive Producer Stevie Salas, a Native American musician, film composer and producer,…
January, 10, 2019

Won’t You Be My Neighbor?

Independent Lens

He gave us the most precious gift of all: the courage to be kind. For over thirty years, American children grew up watching Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood on PBS. Mister Rogers offered a calm and stable presence, tackling life's weightiest issues…
Ulali (Charly Lowry, Pura Fe, Layla Locklear, Jennifer Kreisberg) Photo by David MacLeod
Beyond the Films
January, 3, 2019

RUMBLE On: More Native American Musicians You Should Know

Independent Lens in Beyond the Films

by Gregg McVicar, Host and producer of UnderCurrents on Native Voice One Rock and roll was born in the United States, and it makes sense that some of its forerunners would be the original Americans. The people are the land…