Blog

Women march holding American flags
March, 1, 2005

Sisters of ’77

Independent Lens

Twenty thousand people from across the U.S. gathered in Houston, Texas on a historic weekend in November 1977 for the first federally funded National Women's Conference, aiming to end discrimination against women and promote their equal rights. In the crowd…
February, 22, 2005

Thunder in Guyana

Independent Lens

Filmmaker Suzanne Wasserman grew up fascinated by her glamorous cousin Janet. At 23, Janet Rosenberg, a beautiful nursing student born and raised in Chicago, fell in love with a handsome dental student from a country no one in her family…
A girl stands in her wrestling uniform in front of large American and Texas flags
December, 14, 2004

Girl Wrestler

Independent Lens

Women's wrestling is in the news. In summer 2004, it became an official Olympic sport. But for young women interested in pursuing wrestling, challenges still abound. Girl Wrestler follows a year in the life of Tara Neal, a Texas teenager who…
November, 16, 2004

Afghanistan Unveiled

Independent Lens

This film contrasts the harsh lives of the rural women of Afghanistan with those of the film’s young camerawomen, who are experiencing newfound freedom and opportunity while attempting to use their work to change the condition of women in their…
June, 15, 2004

The Amasong Chorus: Singing Out

Independent Lens

When lesbian music student Kristina Boerger moved to a small college town, she didn't find a ready-made community. So she created one around choral singing. Soon, what had initially been a ragtag group of volunteer vocalists became an award-winning recording…
March, 2, 2004

Sentencing the Victim

Independent Lens

On June 17, 1988, Joanna Katz and another woman were abducted at gunpoint, taken to an abandoned house in Charleston, South Carolina, and brutally raped, beaten and tortured by five men for more than five hours. Sentencing the Victim is…
December, 16, 2003

Loaded Gun: Life, and Death, and Dickinson

Independent Lens

Hundreds of scholars and biographers have tried to explain the life and work of Emily Dickinson, but the famously reclusive poet remains an enigma. In Loaded Gun: Life, and Death, and Dickinson, stumped filmmaker Jim Wolpaw uses a decidedly unorthodox approach…
December, 9, 2003

Eroica!

Independent Lens

Playing with exuberance, intensity, and skill, the Eroica Trio is changing the face of classical music. Violinist Adela Peña, pianist Erika Nickrenz, and cellist Sara Sant'Ambrogio give more than 100 performances a year, ranging from large-scale symphonies in packed concert…
May, 27, 2003

Hansel Mieth: Vagabond Photographer

Independent Lens

A look at the life of one of America’s great women photographers, one of the first staff photographers at LIFE magazine, whose Depression-era photos and commitment to social justice inspired concerned artists everywhere.
May, 6, 2003

Heart of the Sea: Kapolioka’ehukai

Independent Lens

A portrait of Hawaiian surf legend and community activist Rell Kapolioka'ehukai Sunn, who died of breast cancer at age 47. Rell achieved the stature of an icon for her leadership in a community that loved her as much as she…
April, 29, 2003

Sisters in Resistance

Independent Lens

During the Nazi occupation of France, four young women — who were neither Jews nor Communists nor in any danger of arrest — chose to risk their lives as Resistance fighters.  Brought together in prison camp, they helped one another…
February, 4, 2003

Maggie Growls

Independent Lens

Maggie Kuhn (1905-1995) founded the Gray Panthers after being forced to leave the workforce at the age of 65, in what Ralph Nader describes as "the most significant retirement in history." It galvanized Maggie's campaign against mandatory retirement and ageism.…