Blog

An African American boy looks up at burned out buildings in the Bronx, circa late 70s
Beyond the Films
November, 4, 2019

How the Burning of the Bronx Led to the Birth of Hip-Hop

Independent Lens in Beyond the Films

Joshua Jelly-Schapiro, a geographer and writer who co-edited, with Rebecca Solnit, the remarkable, fascinating book Nonstop Metropolis: A New York City Atlas, helped us create a playlist to accompany both Decade of Fire and a key map in his book: "Burning Down…
A man with dark skin tone wears a puffer jacket and a beanie as he walks around a snowy park.
November, 1, 2019

Accept the Call

Independent Lens

Twenty-five years after Yusuf Abdurahman left Somalia as a refugee to begin his life anew in Minnesota — which has the largest population of Somalis in the United States — his worst fear is realized when his 19-year-old-son Zacharia is…
Decade of Fire, kids skating in the Bronx 1970s
Behind the Films
October, 30, 2019

Decade of Fire Filmmakers Change the Narrative About the South Bronx

Craig Phillips in Behind the Films

The three-headed team as it were, of co-directors Vivian Vázquez Irizarry and Gretchen Hildebran, and producer Julia Steele Allen, each brought something different and special to the table in the making of the film Decade of Fire, which tells the…
Filmmaker Sergio Rapu walks his infant son down a hillside on Rapa Nui (Easter Island). In the background, a single moai statue stands in the sun.
October, 21, 2019

Eating Up Easter

Independent Lens

More than just a picture-perfect postcard of iconic stone statues, Rapa Nui, also known as Easter Island, is a microcosm of a planet in flux. Directed by native Rapa Nui filmmaker Sergio Mata’u Rapu, Eating Up Easter explores the challenges…
A still from archival news footage showing three men carrying a body bag into the back of an ambulance.
October, 21, 2019

Cooked: Survival by Zip Code

Independent Lens

In the summer of 1995, Chicago experienced an unthinkable disaster, when extremely high humidity and a layer of heat-retaining pollution drove the heat index up to more than 126 degrees. Cooked: Survival by Zip Code tells the story of this…
Panther Bobby Lee speaking
August, 15, 2019

The First Rainbow Coalition

Independent Lens

In 1969, the Chicago Black Panther Party, notably led by the charismatic Fred Hampton, began to form alliances across lines of race and ethnicity with other community-based movements in the city, including the Latinx group the Young Lords Organization and…
A man and a woman, both with dark skin tone, stand together and look off camera.
August, 15, 2019

Always in Season

Independent Lens

Always in Season follows the tragedy of African American teenager Lennon Lacy, who in August 2014, was found hanging from a swing set in Bladenboro, North Carolina. His suspicious death was ruled a suicide by law enforcement, but Lennon’s mother,…
 Rebecca Hill-Genia, a Shinnecock activist, holding a match during a lighting ceremony in the Hamptons, NY
July, 24, 2019

Conscience Point

Independent Lens

Beneath the mystique of The Hamptons, among the wealthiest zip codes in the U.S., lies the history of the area's original inhabitants, the Shinnecock Indian Nation, who were edged off their land over the course of hundreds of years, relocated…
A group of people with dark skin tone help to clean up a large pile of rubble. The 2020 Audience Award logo is in the corner.
July, 24, 2019

Decade of Fire

Independent Lens

Decade of Fire covers a shocking but untold piece of American urban history, when the South Bronx was on fire in the 1970s.  Left unprotected by the city government, nearly a quarter-million people were displaced as their close-knit, multiethnic neighborhood…
George Attla in Anchorage, 1960s, after Iditarod race
July, 16, 2019

ATTLA

Independent Lens

ATTLA tells the gripping but little-known story of George Attla, a charismatic Alaska Native dogsled racer who, with one good leg and fierce determination, became a legendary sports hero in Northern communities around the world. Part dog whisperer, part canny…
NASA astronaut Mae Jemison waits as her suit technician, Sharon McDougle, performs a unpressurized and pressurized leak check on her spacesuit, 1992.
Beyond the Films
July, 2, 2019

Space Scientists of Color, and the “Afronauts”

Independent Lens in Beyond the Films

By Satu Runa What drives humankind to explore? There are several factors that can embolden a person to “seek out new civilizations” or “boldly go where no one has gone before,” to borrow from Star Trek's famous opener. History has…
From I Am Not Your Negro: James Baldwin in the crowd. March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, 28 August 1963, Washington D.C.
June, 28, 2019

I Am Not Your Negro

Independent Lens

I Am Not Your Negro envisions the book James Baldwin never finished, a radical narration about race in America, using the writer’s original words, as read by actor Samuel L. Jackson. Alongside a flood of rich archival material, the film…