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Interviews
February, 21, 2018

Filmmaker Theo Anthony’s Ratty Exploration of Urban Segregation

Craig Phillips in Interviews

[pullquote]"It’s cool to watch younger audiences watch the film, because they just get the filmic language right away. It’s a film that feels more like an Instagram story than a traditional documentary."[/pullquote]In the New York Times critics' pick review of…
Tell Them We Are Rising filmmakers Marco Williams and Stanley Nelson (l-r)
Interviews
January, 26, 2018

Filmmakers Marco Williams and Stanley Nelson Tell an Essential Chapter of American History in Story of HBCUs

Craig Phillips in Interviews

Tell Them We Are Rising, which premieres on Independent Lens on PBS Monday, February 19 at 9 pm [check local listings], covers the rich history of America’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) from before the end of slavery through a…
James Baldwin on the Dick Cavett Show
Interviews
January, 10, 2018

How “I Am Not Your Negro” Filmmaker Reopened James Baldwin’s “House”

Craig Phillips in Interviews

The worldly Haitian-born filmmaker Raoul Peck and his family fled the Duvalier dictatorship in 1961 and found asylum in the Democratic Republic of Congo, before Peck finished his schooling in the United States, France, and Germany. Currently living in both France and…
Winnie Mandela in Johannesburg, 1992
August, 31, 2017

Winnie

Independent Lens

Most globally known as the wife of Nelson Mandela, the overshadowed Winnie Madikizela-Mandela is one of the most misunderstood and intriguing of contemporary female political figures. Her rise and seeming fall from grace in South Africa bear the hallmarks of…
John Coltrane in concert at Newport Jazz Festival 1966
June, 28, 2017

Chasing Trane: The John Coltrane Documentary

Independent Lens

Season premiere! Set against the social, political and cultural landscape of the times, Chasing Trane brings saxophone great John Coltrane to life, as a man and an artist. The film is the definitive look at the boundary-shattering musician whose influence continues…
Maya Angelou headscarf at fence headscarf, credit: Wayne Miller/Magnum
Lists
March, 22, 2017

Nine Great Documentaries About Women Activists

Sharon Knolle in Lists

As Women’s History Month continues, we’re shining the spotlight on women activists who faced down injustice, pioneered paths for other women and girls, or have fought heroically trying to save the world. Although the women on this list focused on…
Lists
February, 13, 2017

History or Hate: America’s Controversial Monuments to White Supremacy

826chi in Lists

The thing about claiming territory and property is that it takes up space, and taking up space literally makes a huge statement; it becomes a platform for discussing who built something there, and why. So when black musician Daryl Davis…
Filmmaker Dawn Porter
Behind the Films
June, 13, 2016

Dawn Porter Unlocks the Story of Laws Targeting Abortion Providers

Craig Phillips in Behind the Films

Filmmaker Dawn Porter has shown a willingness to probe uncomfortable truths and untold stories in the past. LA Times critic Robert Lloyd called her acclaimed Independent Lens film Spies of Mississippi "eye-opening" for its look at the ways civil rights activists were spied…
A SWAT team on the move in Leith, North Dakota
Beyond the Films
April, 1, 2016

Who Is Watching the Hate? Tracking Hate Groups Online and Beyond

Craig Phillips in Beyond the Films

In Welcome to Leith, the story of what happens when notorious white supremacist Craig Cobb tries to take over a small North Dakota community as a base for himself and his followers, may seem an unusual case. But for those who track…
Black Lives Matter protest against St. Paul police brutality.
Test Your Knowledge
February, 12, 2016

Black Panthers and Black Lives Matter Quiz

Independent Lens in Test Your Knowledge

It was 50 years ago that the Black Panther Party, originally the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, was formed in Oakland, California by Bobby Seale and Huey Newton. The Black Panther Party organized armed citizens' patrols to monitor the behavior of local…
Black Panthers exiting building armed with rifles.
Interviews
February, 11, 2016

Stanley Nelson Reveals the Real Black Panther Party

Craig Phillips in Interviews

Filmmaker Stanley Nelson, who won an Emmy for the PBS documentary The Murder of Emmett Till, three Emmys for Freedom Riders, and made an acclaimed film about Marcus Garvey, has for years aimed his probing but fair-minded lens on civil rights history. Along…
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…