Blog

Sasha Neulinger as a child, black and white photo
November, 8, 2019

Rewind

Independent Lens

Made up of home video footage that reveals a long-kept secret, Sasha Joseph Neulinger’s Rewind is a brave and wrenching look at his childhood and his journey to reconcile his past. By probing the gap between image and reality, the…
October, 21, 2019

Jim Allison: Breakthrough

Independent Lens

The story of one warmhearted, stubborn man’s visionary quest to find a cure for cancer, Jim Allison: Breakthrough is an homage to an unconventional superhero — a pioneering, harmonica-playing scientist who triumphed over a doubtful medical establishment to save innumerable…
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…
doctor takes a patient's blood pressure; image courtesy Rawpixel.com
Beyond the Films
April, 4, 2019

New Efforts to Improve Rural Healthcare Crisis

Independent Lens in Beyond the Films

By Suzanne Gordon The three caregivers we meet in The Providers face daunting challenges as they try to deliver medical and mental healthcare to patients in rural New Mexico. Sadly, their struggles are reproduced all over America because for decades…
Dr Leslie Hayes, smiling at work in her office, in The Providers
Beyond the Films
April, 1, 2019

A Day in the Life of a Rural Doctor, When No Day is the Same

Independent Lens in Beyond the Films

Leslie Hayes knew she wanted to become a doctor from a very young age. She was raised in Los Alamos, New Mexico, a community that hosts a national nuclear laboratory and that boasts the highest rate of PhDs per capita…
The filmmakers of The Providers
Behind the Films
March, 27, 2019

How a Lifelong Fascination with Medicine Turned into a Film About the Rural Healthcare Crisis

Craig Phillips in Behind the Films

[UPDATED April 6, 2019: We reached out to filmmakers Laura Green and Anna Moot-Levin to gather their thoughts on why they titled their film The Providers.] The filmmaking team behind the Independent Lens documentary The Providers live on opposite coasts from each…
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…
Elderly woman getting a perm at the salon
January, 25, 2019

Accident, MD

Independent Lens

Accident, MD is a survey of attitudes about America’s healthcare crisis, filmed in and around the small town of Accident, Maryland during the summer before the 2016 election.
December, 6, 2018

The Providers

Independent Lens

Does your zip code determine your life? The Providers gives a very human face to the physician shortage and opioid epidemic in rural America, following three healthcare professionals who are doing everything they can to make a difference in northern…
Beyond the Films
October, 24, 2018

The Toll: Wildland Firefighters Share Stories from the Job

Craig Phillips in Beyond the Films

Fallen firefighter Robert E. Caldwell, a Granite Mountain hotshot who perished in the Yarnell Hill Fire in Arizona, said to a comrade, "I’d rather die in my boots than live in a suit." It would seem one would have to…
Woman meditating and doing yoga on a laptop screen, images courtesy Pexels.com
Lifestyle
July, 9, 2018

The Pursuit of APP-iness: Can Tech Help Soothe Anxiety?

Craig Phillips in Lifestyle

It may be presumptuous to state this but I will take a chance: I'm likely not the only one out there these days feeling the pull of anxiety. And thus I was motivated to take a personal journey to find…
The women of Served Like a Girl dressed in pageant dresses with combat boots, on Vegas strip at night
Interviews
May, 23, 2018

Overturning Expectations Alongside the Women Warriors of Ms. Veteran America

Craig Phillips in Interviews

Long a successful film producer, Lysa Heslov, along with her husband, Oscar-winning producer/writer/director Grant Heslov, founded Children Mending Hearts ten years ago, a non-profit dedicated to empowering disadvantaged youth in the U.S. through educational and humanities programs that build empathy…