May 27, 2016
Based on a True Story: 8 Documentaries that Inspired Feature Films
Sean Axmaker in Film History
True stories have been a prime inspiration for movies for as long as there have been movies. Early films recreated historical events and breaking news for eager audiences and films…...
May 06, 2016
Losing Your Religion: Nine Movies about Crises of Faith
Noel Murray in Lists
Abigail Disney’s documentary The Armor of Light takes an unusual but illuminating approach to the gun control debate. In the film, Reverend Rob Schenck — an evangelical Christian who gained some…...
April 27, 2016
Blood Guilt: 12 Movies about Healing after Heinous Crimes
Sean Axmaker in Beyond the Films
Niklas Frank and Horst von Wächter are the adult children of high-ranking Nazi officers. As we learn in My Nazi Legacy, their fathers sent tens of thousands of people to…...
March 04, 2016
Documentaries for Movie Geeks: Films About Films
Scott Weinberg in Behind the Films
Once you've watched a beloved movie two or three times, you start to crave a little more information about the film's conception, production, and cultural impact, among other things. So…...
February 10, 2016
The Black Panthers Mixtape
Independent Lens in Lists
For The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution, which aired on Independent Lens, you can plug in, turn on, and get down with our curated Spotify playlist. The set joins the…...
January 01, 2016
Nine Movies about the Power of Cinema
Noel Murray in Film History
In Ilinca Calugareanu’s documentary Chuck Norris vs. Communism, a handful of Romanians who endured the Cold War reminisce about congregating surreptitiously in cramped apartments to watch American action films on…...
November 11, 2015
Eight Gripping Documentaries (and Five Feature Films) to Watch on Veterans Day
Christine Kwon in Lists
Established in 1919 by President Woodrow Wilson, Veterans Day (which is always November 11, to commemorate the date when WWI armistice was signed) has become a tradition to “honor America's veterans…...
October 28, 2015
Five Seriously Scary Documentaries for Halloween
Scott Weinberg in Lists
It's often said that truth is stranger than fiction, and while that may be accurate in some cases, it's also true that truth can be a lot scarier than fiction. As…...
October 21, 2015
Early Silent Documentaries: Real-Life Adventure Cinema
Sean Axmaker in Film History
This piece is part of an ongoing Independent Lens series exploring documentary film history. Stay tuned for more installments. Since the dawn of cinema, cameras have been taken around the world to…...
August 11, 2015
Black Power Playlist: Music is the Message
Independent Lens in Lists
The soundtrack to America’s civil rights movement before the mid-1960s was predominantly made up of gospel standards and spirituals, with a smattering of popular folk. But by the late 1960s,…...
June 26, 2015
19 Memorable Faces of Independent Lens’ 2014-15 Season
Craig Phillips in Lists
As the old saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words, so rather than unleash many more words on you, here's a photo gallery reminding you of some of the memorable…...
June 19, 2015
POV 2015: More Great Docs to Get You Through Summer
Craig Phillips in Lists
[caption id="attachment_7008" align="alignnone" width="600"] Out in the Night[/caption] Our friends at POV are ready to grab the baton for thought-provoking docs airing Mondays on PBS, with a new slate of films about…...