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A woman with medium skin tone poses with her son, also with medium skin tone, in a color photograph from the 70s or 80s. They are both dressed formally.
Behind the Films
June, 9, 2020

How Do You Sort Through 70,000 Videotapes?

Craig Phillips in Behind the Films

The San Jose (CA) native, New York City-based filmmaker Matt Wolf is no stranger to having to comb through archival footage for his documentaries. His film Wild Combination, about the cult avant-garde musician and disco producer Arthur Russell, was set…
Illustration of a side profile of a human head filled in with a black and white image of a tree with many wiry-looking branches.
Beyond the Films
April, 11, 2020

Rural Perspective on Mental Health Care in a Time of Crisis

Independent Lens in Beyond the Films

by Rooney Elmi Kenneth Paul Rosenberg MD’s Bedlam profiles of one of the most pervasive and stigmatized public health crises: mental illness. Taking its titular inspiration from the infamous English “madhouse” founded in the 13th Century (and inspiring Rosenberg’s book…
Headshot of producer/director Kenneth Rosenberg, a man with light skin tone and gray hair and beard.
Beyond the Films
April, 8, 2020

“My Family’s Tragedy Is an American Tragedy”: Bedlam Filmmaker’s Journey to Depict Mental Health Crisis

Craig Phillips in Beyond the Films

In his film Bedlam, Kenneth Paul Rosenberg, MD follows the lives of three patients who find themselves with a chronic lack of institutional support, while he also weaves in his own story of how the system failed his late sister,…
Close up of a mother and daughter hugging inside of a hospital.
Contests
April, 8, 2020

Enter to Win a Copy of “Bedlam: An Intimate Journey into America’s Mental Health Crisis”

Independent Lens in Contests

Looking for your next great read? Bedlam: An Intimate Journey into America's Mental Health Crisis by Bedlam filmmaker Kenneth Paul Rosenberg, MD, sheds light on the mental-health-care crisis in the United States. The book "has the depth of an encyclopedia…
Beyond the Films
April, 6, 2020

Peer Support and the Complexity of Mental Health

Independent Lens in Beyond the Films

By Lennlee Keep The film Bedlam explores mental illness from the perspectives of physicians, politicians, parents, and patients themselves. The power of documentary film is that it generates conversations about more than what is on the screen. After I watched…
A man with light skin tone looks at a computer in a home office alongside an Asian woman, also working at a computer.
Beyond the Films
March, 26, 2020

This Couple Finds Answers for Adopted Daughters From China

Craig Phillips in Beyond the Films

Brian and Long Lan Stuy are a Utah couple who have adopted three daughters from China: Meikina from DianBai, Meigon from Guangzhou, and Meilan from Luoyang. After discovering that documentation for one of their adopted children was fake, Brian and…
An Asian woman with light skin tone holds her infant child while interviewing her mother for One Child Nation.
Behind the Films
March, 25, 2020

Nanfu Wang’s Riveting Personal Story Probes Impact of One-Child Policy

Craig Phillips in Behind the Films

Taking risks is nothing new for Chinese filmmaker Nanfu Wang. Her previous documentary I Am Another You, which was a SXSW Jury Award-winner and aired on Independent Lens, involved her having to live on the streets with the homeless subject…
Still from the 1920 film "Within Our Gates" showing a mob of white men preparing to lynch a young Black boy, while a woman hugs him.
Beyond the Films
February, 20, 2020

As American as the Blues: Lynching in Film and TV

Independent Lens in Beyond the Films

By Ade Adeniji Always in Season explores the history of lynching through the mysterious 2014 death of Lennon Lacy while also looking at historical reenactments of lynching, prompting some to question the value of conjuring up the past. The specter…
Headshot of filmmaker Jacqueline Olive, a woman with medium-dark skin tone and shoulder-length dark hair. She wears pink lipstick.
Behind the Films
February, 20, 2020

Filmmaker Explores First Steps Toward Justice and Reconciliation

Craig Phillips in Behind the Films

Independent filmmaker Jacqueline Olive, who has worked in non-fiction filmmaking for years and co-directed and co-produced the award-winning hour-long documentary, Black to Our Roots (PBS WORLD), makes her feature documentary directing debut with the searing Always in Season, which was…
A black and white photo of Billie Holiday singing mid-note.
Beyond the Films
February, 19, 2020

Billie Holiday’s Searing “Strange Fruit” Still Has the Power to Startle

Independent Lens in Beyond the Films

By Nick Dedina There are often false narratives we tell ourselves so that we can simplify, and beautify, the past and erase aspects of the present that we are uncomfortable with. Take the view that the olden times glowed with…
A Chinese woman holds an infant in her arms while sitting in a gray armchair.
Beyond the Films
February, 5, 2020

The One-Child Policy Legacy on Women and Relationships in China

Independent Lens in Beyond the Films

By Kristal Sotamayor The one-child policy was introduced to China in 1979, written into the national constitution in 1982, and subsequently ended in 2015. Over the 36 years of the policy, entire generations have been marked by the effects of…
A Chinese woman with long hair speaks into a microphone at an event. She wears a white dress with blue and purple flowers.
Behind the Films
February, 5, 2020

Filmmakers Follow Women in China Trying to Overcome Stigma of Being Single

Craig Phillips in Behind the Films

Israeli filmmakers Shosh Shlam and Hilla Medalia have had films air on international television as well as here in the U.S. on HBO, MTV, Sundance, and PBS (Medalia has received four Emmy nominations and won a Peabody Award), and both…