Blog

October, 21, 2019

Jim Allison: Breakthrough

Independent Lens

The story of one warmhearted, stubborn man’s visionary quest to find a cure for cancer, Jim Allison: Breakthrough is an homage to an unconventional superhero — a pioneering, harmonica-playing scientist who triumphed over a doubtful medical establishment to save innumerable…
Is this a black hole in space, or the start of classic rock concert? Take the quiz and find out.
Test Your Knowledge
July, 5, 2019

Can You Tell the Difference Between a Space Object and a Documentary Still Image?

Independent Lens in Test Your Knowledge

Are you ready to celebrate the skies above and the great beyond? So are we...Independent Lens-style. Take a time-out to space out with our visual quiz. See if you can guess if each image is from an Independent Lens documentary…
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…
At the Kennedy Space Center, seven women who once aspired to fly into space stand outside Launch Pad 39B neat the Space Shuttle Discovery, poised for liftoff on the first flight of 1995. They are members of the First Lady Astronaut Trainees (FLATs, also known as the "Mercury 13"). Public domain image.
Beyond the Films
June, 28, 2019

Women of the Space Agency: Once Forbidden, No Longer Hidden

Independent Lens in Beyond the Films

By Heather Archuletta In July of 1999, on Apollo 11’s 30th anniversary, at a Kennedy Space Center press conference, NASA astronaut and first moonwalker Neil Armstrong lamented, “School children used to say, 'We are reading about you in science class.'…