Blog

A man sits in a jail cell
March, 27, 2007

Race to Execution

Independent Lens

Race discrimination infects America’s capital punishment system. According to a landmark study regarding race and the death penalty, a black defendant who kills a white victim is up to 30 times more likely to be sentenced to death than a…
A group of people, some holding signs reading Jeff Smith 2004
February, 27, 2007

Can Mr. Smith Get to Washington Anymore?

Independent Lens

Jeff Smith teaches political science as an adjunct instructor at Washington University in St. Louis. He has also taught at Dartmouth College and the University of Missouri, St. Louis. His courses have covered Congress, public policy, race in American politics…
Two men talk animatedly
November, 28, 2006

Two Square Miles

Independent Lens

With its thriving main street, diverse population and healthy rate of revitalization, Hudson, New York could be seen as a model of small-town America. Depressed and declining towns across the country would welcome any amount of the economic upturn that…
John Trudell
April, 11, 2006

Trudell

Independent Lens

Trudell follows the extraordinary life of Native American poet and activist John Trudell, from his impoverished childhood in Omaha to his leadership in the American Indian Movement (AIM), and his reincarnation as an acclaimed musician and spoken word poet. The…
January, 3, 2006

Sheriff

Independent Lens

Follow the daily adventures of Sheriff Ronald E. Hewett as he tries to keep the peace in the rural community of Brunswick County, North Carolina. More than five years in the making, Sheriff uses classic cinema verité technique (which excludes…
December, 13, 2005

Seoul Train

Independent Lens

In the documentary Seoul Train, filmmakers Jim Butterworth, and Lisa Sleeth expose the life-and-death struggle faced by North Koreans who attempt to flee their homeland through China, a country that does not recognize their legal status as refugees. In China,…
November, 8, 2005

A Family at War

Independent Lens

A Family at War chronicles one family's struggle to deal with their son's death in Iraq and the continuing political fallout from the war. Viewers get to know the young man who died, Jeff Kaylor, through old home movies and…
May, 24, 2005

Red Hook Justice

Independent Lens

Red Hook Justice follows the ups and downs of several defendants and staffers involved in an experimental court in the crime-ridden neighborhood of Red Hook, Brooklyn — part of a legal revolution that has become a model for courts nationwide.
Imelda Marcos
May, 10, 2005

Imelda

Independent Lens

Few modern political figures have been as controversial, outspoken and perhaps misunderstood as Imelda Marcos, the former first lady of the Philippines and the subject of award-winning filmmaker Ramona Diaz's Imelda. For the first time, Marcos tells her own story…
February, 22, 2005

Thunder in Guyana

Independent Lens

Filmmaker Suzanne Wasserman grew up fascinated by her glamorous cousin Janet. At 23, Janet Rosenberg, a beautiful nursing student born and raised in Chicago, fell in love with a handsome dental student from a country no one in her family…
Weather Underground members on the march.
April, 27, 2004

The Weather Underground

Independent Lens

In October 1969, hundreds of young people wielding lead pipes and clad in football helmets marched through an upscale Chicago shopping district, pummeling parked cars and smashing shop windows. Thus began the “Days of Rage,” the first demonstration of the…
March, 2, 2004

Sentencing the Victim

Independent Lens

On June 17, 1988, Joanna Katz and another woman were abducted at gunpoint, taken to an abandoned house in Charleston, South Carolina, and brutally raped, beaten and tortured by five men for more than five hours. Sentencing the Victim is…