Blog

From First Rainbow Coalition: Young Lords members protest at 18th Ave. Police Station, Chicago
Beyond the Films

January 28, 2020

From Race Riots to Rainbow Coalitions and Heatwaves: Chicago Activism on Racial and Economic Justice

Craig Phillips in Beyond the Films

It would be foolhardy to try to succinctly sum up the political history of one of America's most historically politically complicated cities--Chicago--in one sweeping post. Rather, consider this a basic…...

Lance Gumbs at the Shinnecock Pow Wow
Beyond the Films

November 15, 2019

For Tribal Communities, Battle Over Land Is Nothing New

Independent Lens in Beyond the Films

By Jordan Dresser Sometimes, two people can look out of the same window and see two very different things.  This outlook sprang to my mind while watching Treva Wurmfeld’s Conscience…...

Phillip Morris hugs his wife when reunited at Minneapolis airport.
Interviews

November 06, 2019

Following the Journey of Interpreters We Left Behind

Craig Phillips in Interviews

Filmmakers Andrés Caballero and Sofian Khan's previous feature-length collaboration Gaucho del Norte, which made its broadcast premiere on public television’s America ReFramed series, followed the journey of a Patagonian immigrant sheepherder recruited to work…...

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

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

Decade of Fire

Decade of Fire covers a shocking but untold piece of American urban history, when the South Bronx was on fire in the 1970s.  Left unprotected by the city government, nearly a quarter-million people were displaced as their close-knit, multiethnic neighborhood burned to the ground, reducing the… Read More

The Interpreters

The Interpreters is a poignant but tense portrayal of a very human and high-stakes side of war’s aftermath, the story of how Afghan and Iraqi interpreters risked their lives aiding American troops–but then became the people we left behind.  During the wars in Iraq… Read More

One Child Nation

China’s one-child policy, the extreme population control measure that made it illegal for couples to have more than one child, may have ended in 2015, but the process of dealing with the trauma of its brutal enforcement is only just beginning. From award-winning documentarian Nanfu Wang and Jialing… Read More

Elizabeth Perez and kids and Marcos
Where Are They Now?

April 11, 2019

An Update from Elizabeth Perez

Independent Lens in Where Are They Now?

Note: Elizabeth Perez, star of David Sutherland's film Marcos Doesn't Live Here Anymore (a co-presentation of Independent Lens, FRONTLINE, and Voces), wrote us a heartfelt update about how she, her…...

Judge Kholoud picking olives with her children.
Interviews

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…...

Interviews

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…...

The Judge

Showing Shari’a law in a way we’ve never seen before–through the story of the first-ever female judge in Palestine’s religious courts–The Judge is portrait of a remarkable woman who overcame a male-dominated tradition to change minds. Middle East religious courts, including the… Read More