January 10, 2019
11 Questions for 3 Filmmakers About a Million Swamp Rats
Craig Phillips in Beyond the Films
The trio of filmmakers behind the Independent Lens film Rodents of Unusual Size -- Jeff Springer, Chris Metzler and Quinn Costello -- have previously captured unique environmental stories with a very…...
December 21, 2018
Director Duo Show No Easy Answers in Fight Over Land
Craig Phillips in Behind the Films
The team behind the new Independent Lens film My Country No More, Rita Baghdadi and Jeremiah Hammerling, told us they were drawn to Hammerling's native North Dakota to make this film "because his…...
December 11, 2018
Filmmaker Explores a Preacher’s Shocking Sacrifice and How It Can Start a Conversation
Craig Phillips in Interviews
Joel Fendelman's Man on Fire, which has its television premiere on Independent Lens, won the David L. Wolper Student documentary award at the 2017 IDA Awards. The story at its heart…...
November 14, 2018
Erika Cohn Unfolds a New Perception of Shari’a Law in Portrait of Remarkable Woman
Craig Phillips in Behind the Films
Erika Cohn, who co-directed (with Tony Vainuku) the Emmy Award-winning Independent Lens doc In Football We Trust, went from the gridiron in Utah to the Shari'a courts of Palestine for her…...
November 12, 2018
Filmmakers Navigate the Secretive World of Social Media Censorship in Atmosphere of Fear
Craig Phillips in Beyond the Films
You know German filmmakers Moritz Riesewieck and Hans Block are sharp-minded characters when you learn they work collaboratively under the label “Laokoon,” named after the legendary Trojan seer Laocoön who…...
October 29, 2018
Filmmakers Seek the Truth in Eye-Opening Story of Forced Native Child Separation
Craig Phillips in Behind the Films
Before there was Dawnland, there was First Light, a shorter version of the same story about the forced separation of Native American children that helped lead to the trust necessary to tell…...
October 19, 2018
Filmmakers Turned Firefighters Venture Behind the Lines in “Wildland”
Craig Phillips in Beyond the Films
Filmmaker Alex Jablonski and his filmmaking partner Khalil Hudson had quite the arduous, smoke-filled journey to make the film Wildland. The documentary premieres on Independent Lens Monday, Oct. 29. Alex told…...
May 23, 2018
Overturning Expectations Alongside the Women Warriors of Ms. Veteran America
Craig Phillips in Interviews
Long a successful film producer, Lysa Heslov, along with her husband, Oscar-winning producer/writer/director Grant Heslov, founded Children Mending Hearts ten years ago, a non-profit dedicated to empowering disadvantaged youth in…...
May 17, 2018
Documentarians Meet the Real People Behind a Media Firestorm
Craig Phillips in Interviews
Documentarians Reuben Atlas and Sam Pollard picked a hefty, complex, but as it turned out incredibly timely subject to collaborate on. The film ACORN and the Firestorm looks at the…...
May 02, 2018
Documentarian Ventures into the “No Man’s Land” of Malheur Takeover
Craig Phillips in Interviews
Documentarian David Garrett Byars is making his feature film debut with No Man’s Land, but he's made short films before. including Recapture, a short documentary chronicling the attempt of right-wing activists…...
April 25, 2018
Director Finds Real Life Superheroes with “Conviction”
Craig Phillips in Interviews
Filmmaker Jamie Meltzer, also the program director of the MFA program in Documentary Film at Stanford University, has made acclaimed films about a wide collection of topics, from song-poems to…...
April 20, 2018
Five Questions with Nick Offerman about Wendell Berry
Craig Phillips in Behind the Films
Look & See: Wendell Berry's Kentucky co-producer Nick Offerman, an actor of many an indie film and of course on TV's Parks & Recreation, Fargo, and author of Paddle Your Own…...