Blog

Rewind

Made up of home video footage that reveals a long-kept secret, Sasha Joseph Neulinger’s Rewind is a brave and wrenching look at his childhood and his journey to reconcile his past. By probing the gap between image and reality, the film depicts both how little and… Read More

Surrogate mother Shannon holds a baby, in Made in Boise (her husband Tom looks on)
Interviews

October 25, 2019

“A Scene I’ll Never Forget.” Filmmaker Intimately Captures Surrogacy Journey in Boise

Craig Phillips in Beyond the Films

Emmy and Peabody-winning producer/director Beth Aala has gone from a Pool Party (her first film as director) filled with amazing music, the story of how a swimming pool became the center of a…...

Sammy, David, and Todd as the nurse preps for delivery, in Made in Boise.
Beyond the Films

October 22, 2019

Surrogacy Facts and Myths: How Much Do You Know?

Independent Lens in Beyond the Films

By Lennlee Keep In 2018, over 100 children were born in Boise, Idaho, through surrogacy. The story behind this unique baby boom is explored in the Independent Lens documentary Made…...

Eating Up Easter

More than just a picture-perfect postcard of iconic stone statues, Rapa Nui, also known as Easter Island, is a microcosm of a planet in flux. Directed by native Rapa Nui filmmaker Sergio Mata’u Rapu, Eating Up Easter explores the challenges his people are facing, and the… Read More

Jim Allison: Breakthrough

The story of one warmhearted, stubborn man’s visionary quest to find a cure for cancer, Jim Allison: Breakthrough is an homage to an unconventional superhero — a pioneering, harmonica-playing scientist who triumphed over a doubtful medical establishment to save innumerable lives around… Read More

The Hottest August

The Hottest August presents an up-close and personal look at New Yorkers’ growing concerns over a variety of societal changes, from rising rents to marching white nationalists, during one sweltering month in 2017. Raising the specter of our changing climate without ever mentioning it directly, the film is… Read More

Cooked: Survival by Zip Code

In the summer of 1995, Chicago experienced an unthinkable disaster, when extremely high humidity and a layer of heat-retaining pollution drove the heat index up to more than 126 degrees. Cooked: Survival by Zip Code tells the story of this tragic heatwave, the most… Read More

Bedlam

To get to the bottom of the current mental health crisis in the U.S., psychiatrist and documentarian Kenneth Paul Rosenberg, M.D. chronicles the personal, poignant stories of those suffering from serious mental illness, including his own family, to bring to light to this epidemic and possible solutions. Shot… Read More

Made in Boise

In the idyllic city of Boise, nurses, nail technicians, and stay-at-home mothers are choosing to become paid surrogates for people from around the world. Made in Boise offers a rare glimpse into this mysterious world by intimately following the lives of four surrogates, as… Read More

Vintage photos from the winemaking history of the Robledo family from their collection
Beyond the Films

May 08, 2019

Harvest Season’s Historical Roots: Latinos in the Napa and Sonoma Valleys

826chi in Beyond the Films

Bittersweet -- this is the taste you’re left with after watching Harvest Season’s central storylines come to a close. Loved ones are reunited while wineries are engulfed in flames and…...

Winemaker Vanessa Robledo control-burning her dry grapevines
Interviews

May 07, 2019

Bernardo Ruiz Tells Story of the Central Role Latinos Play in California Wine Industry

Craig Phillips in Behind the Films

Two-time Emmy-nominated documentary filmmaker Bernardo Ruiz, who was born in Guanajuato, Mexico and grew up in Brooklyn, made his directorial feature debut with the PBS film Reportero, about attacks on the press…...

Simons and Parham in Oakland
Beyond the Films

April 19, 2019

Stepping Up for Homeless Black People in Oakland

Independent Lens in Beyond the Films

By Pendarvis Harshaw The Independent Lens documentary Charm City brings to mind the long list of urban American cities that fall into the same category as the Baltimore seen in…...