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…...
This piece is part of an ongoing Independent Lens series exploring documentary film history. Check out the previous entry, Silent Real-Life Adventure Films, and stay tuned for more installments. The birth…...
For the last half-century, James “The Amazing” Randi has entertained millions with his dazzling feats of magic, escape, and trickery. Along the way he discovered that faith healers, fortune-tellers, and psychics were using his beloved magician’s tricks to swindle money from the credulous. Fed up with the fraud,… Read More
Few dancers reach the elite level of ballet; of that already small number only a fraction are black women. Misty Copeland shattered those barriers in 2015, making history as the first African American principal dancer with the prestigious American Ballet Theatre (ABT). A Ballerina’s Tale intimately… Read More
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…...
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…...
In communist Romania, thousands of Western films on bootleg VHS tapes — mostly Hollywood action movies — were smuggled behind the Iron Curtain, opening a window into the free world. Under President Nicolae Ceaușescu, Romania was culturally isolated and ideologically censored. Images of life outside its… Read More
In the 1850s, deafness was considered to be so unique and such a marker of difference that Congress considers establishing a western state for the deaf to live together, free from prejudice, within their own culture and community. Alexander Graham Bell’s mother was hearing impaired; ironically his invention of the… Read More
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, music was changing right along with the political landscape. Just as Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X parted ways… Read More
[NOTE: News feed no longer supported as of June 2016.] Ai Weiwei’s life and art are in a constant state of flux. Whether he’s working on an intriguing new art exhibit or being chased by police, there’s always something interesting going on with the renowned artist and dissident. Since Ai… Read More
Most superheroes and other main characters in comic books are straight, white men (albeit often with superhuman powers or abilities). Since the very first comic books in the 1930s, minority characters were generally cast as villains, or caricatures with stereotypical traits. But even in the beginning of the industry there… Read More
