Blog

Smiling women in colorful clothing.
October, 1, 2012

Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide

Independent Lens

Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide is a four-hour PBS primetime documentary film and national broadcast event inspired by the widely acclaimed book of the same name by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn. Filmed in 10…
July, 26, 2012

Strong!

Independent Lens

A formidable figure, standing at 5'8" and weighing over 300 pounds, Cheryl Haworth struggles to defend her champion status as her lifetime weightlifting career inches towards its inevitable end. Strong! chronicles her journey and the challenges this unusual elite athlete…
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…
April, 26, 2012

Facing the Storm: Story of the American Bison

Independent Lens

Tens of millions of bison once roamed North America. For 10,000 years, Native Americans on the Great Plains had a sacred relationship with the animal, relying on it for food, clothing, and shelter. But with the arrival of European Americans…
April, 19, 2012

Revenge of the Electric Car

Independent Lens

In Revenge of the Electric Car, director Chris Paine takes his film crew behind the closed doors of Nissan, GM, and the Silicon Valley start-up Tesla Motors to chronicle the story of the global resurgence of electric cars. Without using a…
March, 29, 2012

You’re Looking at Me Like I Live Here and I Don’t

Independent Lens

In Danville, California, the Traditions Alzheimer’s Care Unit houses 20 residents who are shepherded by caregivers through scheduled activities like balloon baseball and bingo. For most residents, life is routine. But for Lee Gorewitz, life is an odyssey. From the moment she…
Aneta Brodski performs poetry using sign language.
November, 3, 2011

Deaf Jam

Independent Lens

Aneta Brodski is an Israeli-born teenager living in Queens, New York. She is passionate and driven and well liked by her high school classmates. Unique among her classmates, Aneta longs to fully participate in the hearing world. (more…)
Disability rights activists assemble under an American flag with its stars arranged in the shape of a wheelchair.
October, 27, 2011

Lives Worth Living

Independent Lens

People with disabilities are one of the largest minorities in the United States. But for most of American history, they occupied a sub-class of millions without access to everyday things most citizens take for granted: schools, apartment buildings, public transportation,…
Four siblings stand in front of a motor home smiling for the camera.
October, 20, 2011

Donor Unknown

Independent Lens

JoEllen Marsh, 20, wants to know who her biological father is. All she knows of him is the label the California Cryobank gave him in the 1980s: Donor 150. (more…)
April, 26, 2011

Marwencol

Independent Lens

On April 8, 2000, Mark Hogancamp was attacked outside a bar in Kingston, New York, by five men who beat him literally to death. Revived by paramedics, Mark had suffered brain damage and physical injuries so severe even his own…
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…