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Director Cullen Hoback (at right) takes secret charter up West Virginia river to collect water samples under the cover of night.
Interviews
April, 10, 2018

Filmmaker Cullen Hoback Digs Into Political Cover-Ups and Chemical Spills in Americans Water

Craig Phillips in Interviews

Filmmaker Cullen Hoback's previous film Terms and Conditions May Apply (2013), a humorous but chilling documentary about the erosion of online privacy and what info governments and corporations are legally taking from citizens each day, has become (or remains) timely…
Interviews
February, 21, 2018

Filmmaker Theo Anthony’s Ratty Exploration of Urban Segregation

Craig Phillips in Interviews

[pullquote]"It’s cool to watch younger audiences watch the film, because they just get the filmic language right away. It’s a film that feels more like an Instagram story than a traditional documentary."[/pullquote]In the New York Times critics' pick review of…
Musician/Composer Dan Deacon performing; photo by Adam Boaz
Beyond the Films
February, 16, 2018

10 Questions with “Rat Film” Composer Dan Deacon: On Baltimore, Rats, Player Pianos and Theremins

Craig Phillips in Beyond the Films

Baltimore-based composer/musician Dan Deacon did the music for Theo Anthony's Rat Film. The film, which uses the urban rat as a way to explore a deeper story of urbanization and segregation, is a unique blend of history, science and sci-fi,…
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…
Bertha Lewis and ACORN, in ACORN and the Firestorm
January, 18, 2018

ACORN and the Firestorm

Independent Lens

For 40 years, the controversial community organizing group ACORN sought to empower marginalized communities. Its critics, though, believed ACORN exemplified everything wrong with liberal ideals, promoting government waste and ineffective activism. These competing perceptions exploded on the national stage in…
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…
Dogtown Redemption Filmmakers Chihiro Wimbush and Amir Soltani (l-r)
Behind the Films
May, 13, 2016

Seven Years Filming the Homeless of Oakland

Craig Phillips in Behind the Films

The filmmaking team of Amir Soltani and Chihiro Wimbush both come from incredibly varied backgrounds, and bring an abundance of talents and interests to the table for the first feature documentary film for both as directors: Dogtown Redemption, which won…
From Dogtown Redemption: A recycler named Jason takes a break from hauling with his bicycle and cart.
Beyond the Films
May, 13, 2016

How Homeless Recyclers Make a Living Redeeming Recyclables

Carolyn Abate in Beyond the Films

It is 7 a.m. on a clear spring morning in San Francisco and the lines at Our Planet Recycling SF are already 25 people deep. The customers, queued up in rows of four, stand among a collection of rubber garbage…
Dayshal Dicks with her niece Brianna Hallingquest
Beyond the Films
February, 23, 2016

African Americans Hit Hardest by HIV in the South

Lisa Ko in Beyond the Films

While HIV/AIDS is no longer a death sentence to the same extent it was 20 years ago, 50,000 Americans are diagnosed with HIV each year, and the disparities are startling when broken down by race, gender, and region. As reflected…
A man and a woman transport a grocery cart heaped with bags full of recycling they collected in Oakland, CA
December, 1, 2015

Dogtown Redemption

Independent Lens

A surprising number of people make their living off our nation’s vast rivers of trash. Dogtown Redemption follows the lives of three of these people over the course of seven years: Jason Witt, the ultimate recycling hustler, who often hauls…
Stray Dog director Debra Granik with the film's subject, Ron "Stray Dog" Hall
Behind the Films
November, 6, 2015

Debra Granik Goes Back to Missouri for Stray Dog

Craig Phillips in Behind the Films

Filmmaker Debra Granik helped bring actresses Vera Farmiga and Jennifer Lawrence much-deserved fame with her two acclaimed feature films Down to the Bone and Winter’s Bone, respectively. Winter’s Bone in particular, which was nominated for four Oscars, including Best Adapted Screenplay,…
Young Latino boy sits at a classroom desk in the middle of a lettuce field.
October, 1, 2015

East of Salinas

Independent Lens

East of Salinas takes us to the heart of California’s “Steinbeck Country,” the Salinas Valley, to meet a bright boy and his dedicated teacher — both sons of migrant farm workers. With parents who are busy working long hours in…