Blog

The Roh family trek through the jungle at night.
Interviews

January 05, 2024

What Happens to Your Family When You Escape North Korea, and Other Harrowing Tales from Beyond Utopia

Craig Phillips in Beyond the Films

The harrowing, riveting documentary Beyond Utopia, captures what life is like for refugees after escaping North Korea. What happens to the family you left behind? How hard is it to…...

Assorted indian food on black background.. Indian cuisine. Shutterstock photo, By Tatjana Baibakova
Lifestyle

November 17, 2023

“Stinky Lunch Kids Strike Back”: South Asians Redefine What American Food Can Mean

Independent Lens in Beyond the Films

By Bedatri D. Choudhury Journalist and chef Pervaiz Shallwani’s mother moved from Pakistan to Toronto, where she ate her first hot dog in 1975. “She thought it was the grossest…...

Saleha Jabeen at Fort Sheridan Army Reserve Base, Illinois. From Three Chaplains.
Beyond the Films

November 06, 2023

The Complex Role and Diverse Array of Chaplains in the Military

Independent Lens in Beyond the Films

By Ivonne Spinoza When you hear the term chaplain, if you're not in the military, what usually comes to mind? It could be a pop culture reference, like Father Mulcahy…...

Mercedes
Beyond the Films

October 09, 2023

Forensic Anthropology Tools of the Trade 

Independent Lens in Beyond the Films

By Amy Whipple In 1992, forensic anthropologist Mercedes (Mimi) Doretti (pictured above, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in the 1980s) traveled to El Salvador as part of a U.N.-sponsored team to…...

Shutterstock illustration by Malchevska of a woman looking out on to a struggling planet Earth dealing with storms and fire and steam
Beyond the Films

September 05, 2023

Got Climate Anxiety? You’re Not Alone, but Here’s How to Cope

Independent Lens in Beyond the Films

By Jennie Rose With climate-related events bombarding us on a seemingly daily basis, there's naturally a corresponding increase in eco-anxiety, a chronic fear of environmental devastation. The Independent Lens short…...

Yuji Okumoto as Shu Kai Kim, Robert Downey Jr. and James Woods standing in front of prison cell bars, in True Believer
Beyond the Films

May 26, 2023

From True Believer to The Help, How the White Gaze Has Shown Hollywood’s Shortsightedness

Independent Lens in Beyond the Films

An Essay by Dana Verde [Sources and further reading listed at the end] They say hindsight is 20/20 and, historically, stories about real BIPOC characters in both mainstream film and…...

Credit: Diana Mara Henry Photography Caption: Welfare rights leaders (including Johnnie Tillmon and Beaulah Sanders) put their hands together, celebrating passage of their National Plan of Action item at the First National Women's Conference in Houston, Texas.
Beyond the Films

May 16, 2023

From Mothers’ Pensions to Welfare Queens, Debunking Myths about Welfare

Independent Lens in Beyond the Films

By Lennlee Keep A common mindset through modern American history is that people living in poverty simply don't want to work.¹ For decades, politicians have used programs like food stamps, unemployment,…...

Sam Harkness, age 11, screams as a freight train passes by, Color Super-8mm, 1998
Interviews

May 04, 2023

Home Movies and Heartbreak: Brothers Bond Over Decades of Filmmaking

Independent Lens in Beyond the Films

By Brian Darr Sam Now is filled with the unexpected twists and turns of a family undergoing great upheaval, filmed over the course of a quarter-century by one of its…...

Michele Stellato sits in front of her walker
Interviews

April 27, 2023

“Laughter Is My Outlet”: How Michele Stellato is Living and Coping with ALS

Craig Phillips in Beyond the Films

After being diagnosed as a young woman with ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis), Michele “Shelly” Stellato said, "We had to decide what to do with the time we had left.” Part…...

Dissandra violin rehearsal, in Children of Las Brisas. Credit: Carolina Burbano
Beyond the Films

January 04, 2023

The Magic of Venezuelan Classical: From El Sistema and Beyond

Independent Lens in Beyond the Films

At the center of the documentary Children of Las Brisas are the young musicians of El Sistema, the extraordinary, publicly financed, voluntary sector music-education program founded in Venezuela in 1975…...

A girl in red background, darkened, tiktok promoting TikTok social network with a smartphone in hand.
Beyond the Films

November 15, 2022

More Than Just a Hashtag: Disability and TikTok

Independent Lens in Beyond the Films

By Chloe Johnson If you enter the world’s most popular app, TikTok, ADHD might genuinely be the first thing that nondisabled people think of when they imagine what "disability TikTok"…...

Gaelynn Lea, with violin, photo credit Paul Vienneau
Beyond the Films

November 01, 2022

“Everybody’s Voice Is Unique”: Disability in the Performing Arts

Independent Lens in Beyond the Films

By Allison Kirkland Kelsey Peterson's journey in Move Me will resonate with anyone who has undergone change and found something different but just as beautiful on the other side of…...