Blog

Dylan with filmmaker Nanfu Wang reflected at right, shooting I Am Another You
Interviews
January, 24, 2018

How a Chinese Filmmaker Ended up in Florida with a Drifter from Utah

Craig Phillips in Interviews

Nanfu Wang was a student at NYU when she went exploring America, which found her in Florida staying at a hostel. There she encountered a young drifter named Dylan, whom she found fascinating enough to start filming, capturing his experiences…
art for Art of the Shine, featuring a shoe shiners hand
January, 18, 2018

The Art of the Shine

Independent Lens

You might pass them on the sidewalk, at the mall or at the airport. They’re the shoe shiners, purveying an old school trade that seems like something out of the Mad Men era, out of step with our fast-paced, disposable…
Iranian musician Shahin Najafi performing, in When God Sleeps
January, 18, 2018

When God Sleeps

Independent Lens

Would you risk your life for what you believe in? When God Sleeps is a rap-punk-rock documentary about Iranian musician Shahin Najafi, who is forced into hiding after hardline clerics issue a fatwa for his death, incensed by a rap…
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…
Armistead Maupin at typewriter in the 1970s, from Untold Tales
Beyond the Films
December, 18, 2017

Take the Armistead Maupin and Tales of the City Pop Quiz!

Independent Lens in Beyond the Films

How much do you know about Armistead Maupin and about his beloved Tales of the City series? Are you a Maupin superfan? Take this quiz we created for both for longtime fans and those who are newer to Maupin and Tales to…
Filmmaker Jennifer Kroot interviews Maupin at steps to the real-life inspiration for Barbary Lane in Tales of the City
Interviews
December, 15, 2017

From North Carolina to San Francisco: Jennifer Kroot Tells the Tales of Maupin

Craig Phillips in Interviews

Jennifer Kroot brings a background in underground filmmaking to her documentaries and uses that sensibility to create surprises within her stories. The San Francisco-based filmmaker first caught the eye of writer Armistead Maupin when he saw her documentary To Be…
Naomi Kutin and a slightly bigger male powerlifter, from Supergirl
Interviews
December, 7, 2017

Jessie Auritt Explores the World of an Unorthodox Girl in Orthodox World

Craig Phillips in Interviews

"Showcasing a normal girl doing extraordinary things, Supergirl is a health tonic for this cramping climate of resurgent sexism underway where girls everywhere are struggling to understand their worth," wrote Lora Grillo in The Playlist. The documentary Supergirl, explores the…
Greg & Will Kearney in Theo Anthony’s RAT FILM
October, 2, 2017

Rat Film

Independent Lens

“There ain't never been a rat problem in Baltimore, it's always been a people problem.” In his critically-acclaimed directorial debut, Theo Anthony uses the rat to burrow into the dark, complicated history of Baltimore. A unique blend of history, science…
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…
Dolores Huerta rallying farmworkers, in Dolores
August, 31, 2017

Dolores

Independent Lens

Who is Dolores Huerta? One of the most important, yet least known activists of our time, Dolores Huerta was an equal partner in founding the first farm workers union with César Chávez. Tirelessly leading the fight for racial and labor…
Dylan wearing sunglasses reflecting filmmaker Nanfu Wang, from I Am Another You
August, 31, 2017

I Am Another You

Independent Lens

In I Am Another You, filmmaker Nanfu Wang explores the meaning of personal freedom through the eyes of a young American drifter. When 20-something Chinese filmmaker Nanfu first came to America in 2011, Florida seemed like an exotic frontier full…
Young African American women graduating from college
August, 30, 2017

Tell Them We Are Rising

Independent Lens

The rich history of America’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) began before the end of slavery, flourished in the 20th century, and profoundly influenced the course of the nation for over 150 years — yet remains largely unknown. With…