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Emergency response vehicle with flashing lights parked outside burning East Texas church.

April 02, 2015

How Arson Investigation Has Changed

Craig Phillips in Beyond the Films

Theo Love’s film Little Hope Was Arson explores a linked series of suspicious fires set in East Texas in 2010. In the “buckle of the Bible Belt,” ten churches burned…...

Beyond the Films

March 23, 2015

I Identify: What Forces Determine Your Identity?

Independent Lens in Beyond the Films

In Little White Lie, filmmaker Lacey Schwartz uncovers an identity-altering family secret, and then embarks on a journey of discovery as she contends with her new sense of self. The film challenges us…...

Kelby, center, and friends, in Bully
Beyond the Films

October 13, 2014

Kelby Johnson Speaks Out Against Bullying

Craig Phillips in Beyond the Films

Kelby Johnson was one of several students featured in Lee Hirsch's powerful film Bully. After coming out as a lesbian as a teenager, Kelby and Kelby's family were treated as pariahs in their small town…...

Beyond the Films

February 10, 2014

Uncle Sam Wants (to Spy on) You: Domestic Surveillance in the USA

Craig Phillips in Beyond the Films

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="270"] Edward Snowden in Moscow, October 2013 (picture via Wikimedia)[/caption] Spies of Mississippi, about a previously little-known chapter in the civil rights movement, comes at a time…...

Beyond the Films

January 10, 2013

‘Green Book’ Helped Keep African Americans Safe on the Road

826chi in Beyond the Films

In Soul Food Junkies, filmmaker Byron Hurt briefly describes what it used to be like for African Americans to travel in the United States. He talks about how blacks would take…...