April 21, 2017
Earth Day Watch List: 17 Films About Sustainability and Climate Change
Jennie Z. Rose in Lists
We count on indie filmmakers to sniff out the conspicuous absences in mainstream media. Journalist and investigative reporter Amy Goodman once said, "The role of independent media is to go…...
April 20, 2017
Ferne Pearlstein Asks Comedians and Survivors: What Is Off-Limits in Comedy?
Craig Phillips in Interviews
“Somebody once said, ‘Tragedy plus time equals comedy.’ And I always felt, why wait?” - Comedian Gilbert Gottfried, in The Last Laugh There have been many films about the Holocaust,…...
April 20, 2017
Growing Industry: Why Weed Seeds Are Giving Way to Pot Clones
826chi in Beyond the Films
In the Independent Lens doc SEED: The Untold Story, biodiversity evangelists travel the globe in search of as many seed varieties as they can bank in their vaults before they…...
April 13, 2017
Banking on Seeds: Rare, Diverse, and Endangered
Jennie Z. Rose in Beyond the Films
When National Geographic Magazine reported that about 94% of the world’s vegetable seeds circa 1903 are now missing from the Earth, Taggart Siegel and Jon Betz promptly started work on…...
April 12, 2017
Filmmakers Share the Roots of their Seed Documentary
Craig Phillips in Interviews
With SEED: The Untold Story, filmmakers Taggart Siegel and Jon Betz complete a trilogy of sorts, after The Real Dirt on Farmer John and The New York Times Critic Pick…...
April 03, 2017
Kim A. Snyder Tells Newtown Families’ Deeply Intimate Story
Craig Phillips in Interviews
Filmmaker Kim Snyder is no stranger to having to patiently and empathetically ingratiate herself with a community. Her film Welcome to Shelbyville, which was nationally broadcast on Independent Lens, spent time in a…...
April 02, 2017
Newtown – “We Don’t Have a Teacher”
Independent Lens in
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March 31, 2017
Healing Places: Rebuilding After a Community Tragedy
Craig Phillips in Beyond the Films
"The only thing tragedy gives us is the opportunity to rebuild our life." -writer Paulo Coelho The film Newtown asks, "What remains after all is lost?" Some have said that it…...
March 27, 2017
Girl Power: The Original #SquadGoals (and Just #Goals in General)
826chi in Beyond the Films
In the Independent Lens documentary Ovarian Psycos, we're introduced to The Ovas — a chicanx (xicanx) feminist group who bike through the streets of East L.A. in honor of sisterhood. While…...
March 23, 2017
Ovarian Psycos Filmmakers Follow the Ovas Bike Brigade in East L.A.
Craig Phillips in Interviews
Ovarian Psycos brought together filmmakers Joanna Sokolowski, who co-produced the Emmy® Award-winning HBO documentary Very Semi-Serious (2015), about New Yorker cartoonists, and Kate Trumbull-LaValle, an award-winning independent documentary filmmaker who first began…...
March 22, 2017
Nine Great Documentaries About Women Activists
Sharon Knolle in Lists
As Women’s History Month continues, we’re shining the spotlight on women activists who faced down injustice, pioneered paths for other women and girls, or have fought heroically trying to save…...
March 17, 2017
Filmmakers Lou Pepe and Keith Fulton Tell Story of At-Risk Youth Getting Last Chance
Craig Phillips in Behind the Films
Filmmakers Lou Pepe and Keith Fulton have gone from the deserts of Spain (for their acclaimed film Lost in La Mancha about Terry Gilliam's ill-fated attempt to make a Don Quixote…...