Blog

Larry Krasner and his team celebrates their victory on election night in Philadelphia
Beyond the Films
April, 9, 2021

Philadelphia Has a Long History of Fights Over Criminal Justice Reform

Independent Lens in Beyond the Films

By Kristal Sotomayor In order to understand the rich history of criminal reform work, up through the vivid stories of crime and punishment presented in the docuseries Philly D.A., it is important to recognize Philadelphia's origin story, as it were.…
Filmmaker Ursula Liang with camera on location in New York
Behind the Films
April, 7, 2021

“Nobody Was Listening”: Finding Light in a Dark Stairwell

Craig Phillips in Behind the Films

Filmmaker Ursula Liang's previous documentary 9-Man was about the fascinating titular sport that originated among Chinese immigrant communities in the United States and Canada, and was set in mostly Boston, Washington and Toronto. Her new film Down a Dark Stairwell…
Sgt. Alice White training cadets in procedural justice
Behind the Films
February, 5, 2021

Telling the Story of Gender, Politics, and Violence in America Through the Eyes of Women Police Officers

Craig Phillips in Behind the Films

In addition to her documentaries Still Doing It: The Intimate Lives of Women Over 65, and Suicide On Campus, a web documentary produced in conjunction with The New York Times Magazine, Deirdre Fishel's previous film CARE peeled back the curtain…
The Philadelphia D.A., a man with light skin tone, gray hair, and glasses, sits in a leather chair flanked by his team: two rows of people with various skin tones wearing business casual attire.
December, 15, 2020

Philly D.A.

Independent Lens

In 2017, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania had one of the highest incarceration rates of any major city in the United States. And it’s become the epicenter of a historic experiment that could shape the future of prosecution in America for decades to…
A woman's hand is handcuffed to a hospital bed.
Behind the Films
November, 18, 2020

Filmmaker Exposes Shocking Pattern of Illegal Sterilizations in Women’s Prisons

Craig Phillips in Behind the Films

Erika Cohn has made powerful documentaries for Independent Lens before and is no stranger to telling intimate, surprising stories in tense environments: her Peabody Award-winning film The Judge showed Shari’a law in a new light to Western eyes, through the…
Down a Dark Stairwell_Hertencia_PinkHouses
July, 31, 2020

Down a Dark Stairwell

Independent Lens

Down a Dark Stairwell chronicles the tragic shooting in Brooklyn of Akai Gurley, an innocent Black man, and the trial of the Chinese American police officer, Peter Liang, who pulled the trigger, casting a powerful light on the experiences of…
Headshot of filmmaker Jacqueline Olive, a woman with medium-dark skin tone and shoulder-length dark hair. She wears pink lipstick.
Behind the Films
February, 20, 2020

Filmmaker Explores First Steps Toward Justice and Reconciliation

Craig Phillips in Behind the Films

Independent filmmaker Jacqueline Olive, who has worked in non-fiction filmmaking for years and co-directed and co-produced the award-winning hour-long documentary, Black to Our Roots (PBS WORLD), makes her feature documentary directing debut with the searing Always in Season, which was…
A black and white photo of Billie Holiday singing mid-note.
Beyond the Films
February, 19, 2020

Billie Holiday’s Searing “Strange Fruit” Still Has the Power to Startle

Independent Lens in Beyond the Films

By Nick Dedina There are often false narratives we tell ourselves so that we can simplify, and beautify, the past and erase aspects of the present that we are uncomfortable with. Take the view that the olden times glowed with…
A man with dark skin tone holds a phone to his ear. He looks anxious.
Behind the Films
January, 14, 2020

Filmmaker Accepts the Call to Tell Story of a Father and Son Divided

Craig Phillips in Behind the Films

Filmmaker Eunice Lau, who is originally from Singapore (and boy does she have a story to tell you here about the experience of showing her film back home), was once a journalist at Al Jazeera Network. She has a penchant…
woman holding a red sign that reads La Jails are the largest mental health institution in the country you can't get well in a cell
September, 13, 2019

Bedlam

Independent Lens

To get to the bottom of the current mental health crisis in the U.S., psychiatrist and documentarian Kenneth Paul Rosenberg, M.D. chronicles the personal, poignant stories of those suffering from serious mental illness, including his own family, to bring to…
A man and a woman, both with dark skin tone, stand together and look off camera.
August, 15, 2019

Always in Season

Independent Lens

Always in Season follows the tragedy of African American teenager Lennon Lacy, who in August 2014, was found hanging from a swing set in Bladenboro, North Carolina. His suspicious death was ruled a suicide by law enforcement, but Lennon’s mother,…
Native Hawaiian prisoners perform a ritual ceremony using conch shells as instruments
Behind the Films
April, 30, 2019

Filmmaker Follows Incarcerated Native Hawaiians Discovering Their Indigenous Traditions

Craig Phillips in Behind the Films

Native Hawaiian filmmaker Ciara Lacy has had her work aired on PBS, ABC, TLC, Discovery, Bravo and A&E, and was an inaugural Sundance Institute Merata Mita Fellow for Indigenous Artists. A graduate of Yale and Hawai'i's Kamehameha Schools, Lacy's first documentary…