February 15, 2023
Beyond Football: Pahokee, Florida’s History of Black Resilience
Craig Phillips in Behind the Films
This community and the surrounding area around the southern shores of Lake Okeechobee, Florida, has a rich history, but the people of Pahokee's past has often been skipped over, even…...
January 17, 2023
From Podcast to Doc: Erika Alexander and Whitney Dow on Their Reparation Collaboration
Craig Phillips in Behind the Films
Will the burden to make restitution for Black Americans ever be addressed, or is it too late for a reparations movement to finally happen? That question is at the center…...
November 07, 2022
“I Want to Move, I Want to Embrace Change”: Kelsey Peterson’s Journey to Dance Again
Independent Lens in Behind the Films
By Xian Horn Kelsey Peterson and I have had very different experiences of disability—I was born with cerebral palsy, and she became disabled as an adult. But watching her film…...
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…...
September 15, 2022
The Price of Hazing: A Personal Journey to Understand the Need to Belong
Craig Phillips in Behind the Films
Byron Hurt has made indelible films about the traditions of African American culinary traditions (Soul Food Junkies) and masculinity and misogyny in rap music with his daring doc Hip-Hop: Beyond…...
May 09, 2022
At Remote High School, Indigenous Teens Dream of a Glittering Future
Craig Phillips in Beyond the Films
South African-born, Utah-based documentarian Jared Jakins, currently the film curator at Granary Arts Center in Ephraim, Utah, is interested in stories of cultural intersection, and documenting communities and identities emerging…...
May 03, 2022
A Path to Forgiveness Complicated by Race and Justice: A Conversation with Claude Motley and Brad Lichtenstein
Craig Phillips in Behind the Films
Filmmaker Brad Lichtenstein was nominated for a News & Documentary Emmy Award for the Independent Lens/PBS film As Goes Janesville, which was about a blue-collar town struggling to renew itself.…...
April 22, 2022
Telling Asian American Stories That Resonate: Filmmaker Explores Why These High School Students Are Stressed Out
Craig Phillips in Behind the Films
During her long time living in the San Francisco Bay Area, filmmaker Debbie Lum was greatly influenced by working as an editor for documentarian Spencer Nakasako. Lum as a youth…...
April 18, 2022
Investigating the Mysteries of Consciousness
Craig Phillips in Behind the Films
AWARE: Glimpses of Consciousness is the fourth film collaboration between Eric Black and Frauke Sandig, who are based in San Francisco and Berlin respectively, but managed to collaborate on a…...
March 15, 2022
Oscar-Nominated “Writing With Fire” Goes Inside India’s Only All-Women Newspaper
Craig Phillips in Interviews
Rintu Thomas and Sushmit Ghosh, co-directors, made a long journey metaphorically and literally with their film Writing With Fire, from northern India's Uttar Pradesh state, where they worked on the…...
February 11, 2022
How Incarceration Affects Mothers and Their Children
Craig Phillips in Beyond the Films
Jennifer Redfearn, an Oscar-nominated director and producer (Sun Come Up) and current director of the documentary program at UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism, made the documentary Apart—with producer/cinematographer Tim…...
February 08, 2022
What Americans Will Do to Feel Safe in Schools
Craig Phillips in Beyond the Films
What is the cost of feeling "safe" in American classrooms in an era when mass shootings have become more commonplace? The documentary Bulletproof takes a unique vérité approach in exploring…...