Blog

Elderly mother and grown daughter sit behind a birthday cake.
September, 15, 2015

Mimi and Dona

Independent Lens

What happens when love runs out of time? For 92-year-old Mimi, who has spent much of her life caring for 64-year-old Dona, her daughter with an intellectual disability, it means facing the inevitable — the likelihood that she will not…
Biker Ronnie "Stray Dog" Hall watches a kid eat a watermelon.
August, 26, 2015

Stray Dog

Independent Lens

From Debra Granik, director of the Oscar-nominated Winter’s Bone, comes this portrait of a motorcycle-riding, freedom-loving, Vietnam veteran cast in the mold of an outlaw biker. But there’s much more to burly, bearded Ronnie “Stray Dog” Hall than meets the…
Young African American man sits on a park bench in winter clothing.
Beyond the Films
April, 9, 2015

Homeless but Not Hopeless: Homeless Youth in America

Craig Phillips in Beyond the Films

Youth homelessness is on the rise in the United States, and the numbers aren't pretty. One in 30 kids (nearly 2.5 million children) of K-12 school age are now homeless in the US, according to a study by the National Center on…
AIDS awareness protestor under arrest
December, 30, 2013

How to Survive a Plague

Independent Lens

In the dark days of 1987, America was six years into the AIDS epidemic, a crisis that was still largely being ignored both by government officials and health organizations — until the sudden emergence of the activist group ACT UP…
Archival photo of ACT UP AIDS activists embracing during a protest.
June, 14, 2012

We Were Here

Independent Lens

We Were Here documents the arrival in San Francisco of what was then called the "Gay Plague" in the early 1980s. It illuminates the profound personal and community issues raised by the AIDS epidemic, as well as the broad political…
Interviews
June, 7, 2012

Evoking a Time When San Francisco Was a War Zone

826chi in Interviews

What led you to make this film at this point in time? A younger boyfriend who had heard me speak many times about my experiences living in San Francisco during the AIDS epidemic suggested that I make a film.  I…
Director Jeff Malmberg and Mark Hogancamp with their Marwencol alter egos. (Photo by Chris Shellen)
April, 25, 2011

Marwencol Director Reflects on a Man, His Dolls, and the Touch of Genius

826chi

Jeff Malmberg, director of Marwencol, took on much more than just a film project when he decided to shoot a documentary about Mark Hogancamp. Intrigued by a magazine article about Mark and his imaginary backyard universe, Jeff had to earn…
Twisted director Laurel Chiten sitting on a stoop with her head cocked to the side as she smokes a cigarette.
January, 30, 2007

Twisted

Independent Lens

After a car accident when she was 17, Twisted director Laurel Chiten woke up in an ambulance with a collapsed lung and a head wound requiring stitches. She was discharged days later, apparently healed. The following spring her head started…