Blog

Biker Ronnie "Stray Dog" Hall watches a kid eat a watermelon.
August, 26, 2015

Stray Dog

Independent Lens

From Debra Granik, director of the Oscar-nominated Winter’s Bone, comes this portrait of a motorcycle-riding, freedom-loving, Vietnam veteran cast in the mold of an outlaw biker. But there’s much more to burly, bearded Ronnie “Stray Dog” Hall than meets the…
Young African American man sits on a park bench in winter clothing.
Beyond the Films
April, 9, 2015

Homeless but Not Hopeless: Homeless Youth in America

Craig Phillips in Beyond the Films

Youth homelessness is on the rise in the United States, and the numbers aren't pretty. One in 30 kids (nearly 2.5 million children) of K-12 school age are now homeless in the US, according to a study by the National Center on…
Decaying buildings face an empty street in small town Rich Hill
Lists
January, 5, 2015

American Dreaming: Small Towns Through the Movies

Craig Phillips in Lists

Rich Hill is a new example of a realistic portrayal of a small American town, through the eyes of three young residents and their struggling families, but the fascination with (capital letters intended) Small Town America has been with us since…
Filmmakers Andrew Cohn (l) and Davy Rothbart
Uncategorized
March, 31, 2014

How Filmmakers Andrew Cohn and Davy Rothbart Found Medora

Craig Phillips in Uncategorized

The Ann Arbor, Michigan-raised Andrew Cohn and Davy Rothbart have worn a lot of creative hats. Rothbart created the eclectic, cult magazine Found, has contributed to NPR's This American Life, written for The New Yorker, Grantland, The New York Times, GQ and…
Highway sign in rural countryside reads "Janesville Population 63,575."
October, 8, 2012

As Goes Janesville

Independent Lens

Janesville, Wisconsin is not unlike a lot of Midwestern blue-collar, middle-class towns in America. Since the economy began its nosedive in 2008, Janesville residents, civic leaders, and businesses have been plunged into an extended cycle of hardship and uncertainty. And…
A Haitian boy stands in a water-logged slum.
January, 11, 2011

Children of Haiti

Independent Lens

In the midst of Haiti’s lush mountains and historical relics, hundreds of thousands of orphaned and abandoned children wander the streets day and night. Known as the Sanguine (“Soulless”) and forgotten by their own people, they struggled for survival even…
Young Chinese girl in a blue jeans factory.
April, 3, 2007

China Blue

Independent Lens

They live crowded together in cement factory dormitories where water has to be carried upstairs in buckets. Their meals and rent are deducted from their wages, which amount to less than a dollar a day. Most of the jeans they…
Children in a classroom
March, 23, 2004

T-Shirt Travels

Independent Lens

When filmmaker Shantha Bloemen was stationed in a remote village in Zambia as a worker with an international aid organization, she noticed that almost everyone in the village wore secondhand clothing from the West, from the village elder decked out…