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…...
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…...
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…...
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…...
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…...
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…...
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,…...
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…...
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…...
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…...
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"…...
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…...