Blog

The Greensboro Four sit at a diner counter.
February, 1, 2005

February One: The Story of the Greensboro Four

Independent Lens

In one remarkable day, four college freshmen changed the course of American history. On February 1, 1960, Ezell Blair, Jr. (now Jibreel Khazan), David Richmond, Franklin McCain and Joseph McNeil—later dubbed the Greensboro Four—began a sit-in at a Woolworth's lunch…
November, 23, 2004

Los Angeles Now

Independent Lens

Los Angeles, once the whitest city in America, is now the most multicultural city in the world. Yet the city’s cultural transformation has gone largely overlooked by the movies, the media and even by many of its residents.
May, 11, 2004

Refugee

Independent Lens

Three young Cambodian American men living in San Francisco return to the land of their roots wielding video cameras to document their experience of meeting fathers, sisters, and brothers for the first time.
May, 7, 2004

Death of a Shaman

Independent Lens

As their father lay dying in a hospital bed in November 2000, Fahm Fong Saeyang and her siblings gathered to watch over him, listening to his final words about walking through the mountains in his home country of Thailand. A…
April, 6, 2004

Every Child Is Born a Poet: The Life and Work of Piri Thomas

Independent Lens

Combining poetry, documentary, and drama, Every Child is Born a Poet explores the life and work of Piri Thomas, the 75-year-old Afro-Cuban-Puerto Rican poet and author of Down These Mean Streets. A landmark of modern American literature, this 1967 autobiographical…
Family photo of Latino immigrants.
March, 29, 2004

The New Americans

Independent Lens

What does the “American dream” look like through the eyes of today's immigrants and refugees? The New Americans shows from Nigeria, India, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, and the Israeli-occupied West Bank, they come with different dreams.
February, 24, 2004

Jimmy Scott: If You Only Knew

Independent Lens

Overcoming Kallman's Syndrome, prejudice, self-destruction and powerful enemies in the music industry, rediscovered jazz legend Jimmy Scott recounts his rise and fall and rise again as one of the most distinctive vocalists of our time.
February, 17, 2004

A Place of Our Own

Independent Lens

Each summer, affluent and successful African Americans like filmmaker Stanley Nelson return to Oak Bluffs, Martha's Vineyard, an upper middle class resort community that has historically provided an oasis for black professionals.
A man in chains and collar
February, 10, 2004

Nat Turner: A Troublesome Property

Independent Lens

The historical search for the mysterious Nat Turner, leader of the legendary 1831 slave rebellion, has inspired academics, novelists, dramatists, and others in a fierce battle over who he was and what he means to America.
A baby in the arms of her smiling father
November, 11, 2003

Be Good, Smile Pretty

Independent Lens

On March 16, 2001, 32-year-old Tracy Droz Tragos typed her father's name into Yahoo.com and hit 'Search.' Two and a half years later, the results of that search are chronicled in Be Good, Smile Pretty, a film that documents Tracy’s…
October, 28, 2003

Shaolin Ulysses: Kungfu Monks in America

Independent Lens

The famous fighting monks of the Shaolin Temple have seen a resurgence throughout the world, aided in part by the popularity of kungfu movies starring Jet Li and the Academy Award-winning Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Narrated by Beau Bridges, Shaolin…
October, 21, 2003

Foto-Novelas 2

Independent Lens

In 1997, Filmmaker Carlos Avila introduced television audiences to the world of foto-novelas through four original dramas inspired by the fantastic elements of the Mexican and Latin American pulp novel tradition. Avila returns with two new exhilarating stories inspired by…