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Beyond the Films
May, 17, 2017

Teachers Beat the “Macho Culture” in Prisons through Art Programs

826chi in Beyond the Films

In the early 2000s, Hollywood invested in the urban fairy tale where a teacher is called into the principal’s office of a school in a low-income, broken part of town and is requested to help “build character and morale.” (Think…
Interviews
May, 17, 2017

Ben Lear Shows Reality and Human Face of Juvenile Justice System

Craig Phillips in Interviews

They Call Us Monsters is Ben Lear's first film as director, but he's not new to the business. Yes, Ben is the son of trailblazing TV producer-writer Norman Lear of All in the Family and Good Times fame (and you can…
Prison in Twelve Landscapes filmmaker Brett Story
Interviews
May, 5, 2017

Canadian Filmmaker Explores American Prison System’s Long Reach

Craig Phillips in Interviews

Canadian filmmaker Brett Story was recently awarded the inaugural New Visions Award from Canada's DOC Institute, who wrote of her, "Watching Story’s socially engaged but visually driven work provides ample evidence that she was an obvious choice for the award, given…
National Bird director Sonia Kennebeck
Interviews
April, 28, 2017

Sonia Kennebeck Makes Film About the Human Cost of Drone Wars and Whistleblowing

Craig Phillips in Interviews

Sonia Kennebeck's film National Bird, which was executive produced by renowned filmmakers Errol Morris and Wim Wenders, takes a risk just by making it in the first place. It tells the story of the United States drone war, from a very…
A Navy X-47B Unmanned Combat Air System Demonstration aircraft takes off and flies for the first time Feb. 4, 2011, at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. The Northrop Grumman-built aircraft flew for 29 minutes during the flight test. (Via Wikimedia commons)
Beyond the Films
April, 27, 2017

A Drone by Any Other Name: The Different Kinds of Drones

Craig Phillips in Beyond the Films

Drones are at the center of the Independent Lens film National Bird, though the documentary puts a very human face behind military drone operations, focusing on the post-traumatic stress stemming from participating in remote warfare. But for a word that comes up…
Elle in full uniform in The Invisible War stands at the Vietnam War Memorial
Film History
March, 8, 2017

Meet the Trailblazers of Documentary Activism

Sean Axmaker in Film History

We think of the cinema of activism in documentary filmmaking as a relatively modern phenomenon, something first awakened in the 1960s and 1970s and popularized by the likes of Michael Moore and Laura Poitras and Alex Gibney. But the success…
Lists
February, 13, 2017

History or Hate: America’s Controversial Monuments to White Supremacy

826chi in Lists

The thing about claiming territory and property is that it takes up space, and taking up space literally makes a huge statement; it becomes a platform for discussing who built something there, and why. So when black musician Daryl Davis…
From scene in The Witness, an actress recreates moments before Kitty Genovese was attacked and killed on this same corner in Queens, NY
Beyond the Films
January, 19, 2017

History of 911: America’s Emergency Service, Before and After Kitty Genovese

Carolyn Abate in Beyond the Films

On a cold winter night, March 13, 1964, at around 2:40 in the morning, 28-year-old Kitty Genovese was attacked with a knife just a block from her apartment and died in her stairwell. Genovese’s murder was a tragedy for her family and…
William F. Buckley and Gore Vidal on set of the 1968 ABC News studio
Test Your Knowledge
September, 30, 2016

Quiz: Are You Buckley or Vidal?

Independent Lens in Test Your Knowledge

In 1968, opposing intellectual forces William F. Buckley and Gore Vidal squared off in a series of nationally televised debates during one of our nation's most turbulent election cycles. With a month to go before another historic and tumultuous election, find…
Political pundit Gore Vidal on a television monitor, 1968; courtesy Estate of Archie Lieberman
Beyond the Films
September, 27, 2016

Evolution of TV Political Pundits: The Legacy of Buckley and Vidal

Craig Phillips in Beyond the Films

As depicted in Best of Enemies, bitter intellectual rivals Willam F. Buckley and Gore Vidal eviscerating each other with wit on network TV in 1968 made for riveting, and sometimes jaw-dropping, television. It also laid the groundwork for the ignominious future of the…
Gore Vidal (front) and William F Buckley (back) are prepped in makeup chairs for their ABC debates
Behind the Films
September, 27, 2016

Morgan Neville and Robert Gordon Peel the Layers of Buckley and Vidal

Craig Phillips in Behind the Films

It's not often you'll find a documentary filmmaking team who combined have won an Oscar, an Emmy, and a Grammy, but the multi-faceted duo of Morgan Neville and Robert Gordon have done just that. Neville's 20 Feet from Stardom won the Oscar for Best…
Army veteran Alex Sutton holds a baby bird in Farmer Veteran
August, 23, 2016

Farmer/Veteran

Independent Lens

Home from three combat tours in Iraq, Alex Sutton forges a new identity as a farmer, hatching chicks and raising goats on 43 acres in rural North Carolina. Farmer/Veteran shows Alex diving into life on the farm with his new…