Blog

Malcom X sitting in a crowd looking off screen

January 15, 2018

I Am Not Your Negro – “The Future of the Negro”

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James Baldwin on the Dick Cavett Show
Interviews

January 10, 2018

How “I Am Not Your Negro” Filmmaker Reopened James Baldwin’s “House”

Craig Phillips in Interviews

The worldly Haitian-born filmmaker Raoul Peck and his family fled the Duvalier dictatorship in 1961 and found asylum in the Democratic Republic of Congo, before Peck finished his schooling in…...

Person wearing large headphone with forehead on bed

January 08, 2018

Unrest – Seeking Relief from M.E./Chronic Fatigue

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Unrest filmmaker Jen Brea
Interviews

January 04, 2018

Filmmaker with M.E./Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Investigates Her Own Medical Mystery in Unrest

Craig Phillips in Interviews

To say filmmaker Jen Brea has made the most of her challenging situation would be a vast understatement. Burdened with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS), she produced her film Unrest…...

Rick Hall stands on a hillside in Muscle Shoals.
Announcements

January 03, 2018

Muscle Shoals’ Rick Hall Passes Away

Craig Phillips in Announcements

Sad news to report, that Rick Hall, the star of the Independent Lens film Muscle Shoals, has died at the age of 85 after a long illness. The Fame Studios founder,…...

Armistead Maupin at typewriter in the 1970s, from Untold Tales
Test Your Knowledge

December 18, 2017

Take the Armistead Maupin and Tales of the City Pop Quiz!

Independent Lens in Beyond the Films

How much do you know about Armistead Maupin and about his beloved Tales of the City series? Are you a Maupin superfan? Take this quiz we created for both for longtime…...

Filmmaker Jennifer Kroot interviews Maupin at steps to the real-life inspiration for Barbary Lane in Tales of the City
Interviews

December 15, 2017

From North Carolina to San Francisco: Jennifer Kroot Tells the Tales of Maupin

Craig Phillips in Interviews

Jennifer Kroot brings a background in underground filmmaking to her documentaries and uses that sensibility to create surprises within her stories. The San Francisco-based filmmaker first caught the eye of…...

Naomi Kutin gets make-up before her Bat Mitzvah, in Supergirl
Beyond the Films

December 12, 2017

On Supergirls, Sasha Fierce, Slim Shady and Having an Alter Ego

Independent Lens in Beyond the Films

By Michelle Konstantinovsky Naomi Kutin is technically the central subject of the new Independent Lens documentary Supergirl. But as the film unfolds, viewers learn fairly quickly that there are actually two equally important…...

Naomi Kutin and a slightly bigger male powerlifter, from Supergirl
Interviews

December 07, 2017

Jessie Auritt Explores the World of an Unorthodox Girl in Orthodox World

Craig Phillips in Interviews

"Showcasing a normal girl doing extraordinary things, Supergirl is a health tonic for this cramping climate of resurgent sexism underway where girls everywhere are struggling to understand their worth," wrote…...

RICCARDO PRIVITERA, from Shadow World
Beyond the Films

November 18, 2017

Meet Your Guides to the Shady Global Arms Trade of Shadow World

Craig Phillips in Beyond the Films

Shadow World is in many senses an epic film, that (as Ian McQuaid wrote in The Ransom Note) "draws together a sordid tale of corruption, violence, and greed that sprawls across decades…...

money-paper airplane fighters, in graphic for Shadow World created by Independent Lens
Interviews

November 10, 2017

Global Arms Expert Andrew Feinstein Explores Shadow World of Weapons Trade

Craig Phillips in Beyond the Films

Andrew Feinstein is one of the world's leading experts on political corruption and the global arms trade. A frequent commentator on BBC, CNN, Al Jazeera, and The Guardian, his writing…...

Young man with saxophone hanging from his while he looks down.

November 07, 2017

Chasing Trane – Coltrane Reawakens with New Blood – Clip

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