New Year Baby

Filmmaker Socheata Poeuv grew up in the United States never knowing that her family had survived the Khmer Rouge genocide. In New Year Baby, she embarks on a journey to Cambodia in search of the truth about her family's past. Read More

Na Kamalei: The Men of Hula

Follow the journey of legendary teacher Robert Cazimero and the only all-male hula school in Hawaii as they celebrate their 30th anniversary and prepare to compete at the world’s largest hula festival. Read More

Water Flowing Together

In 2005, the remarkable dancer Jock Soto retired from the New York City Ballet at age 40, after a 24-year career. His journey as an openly gay man of Navajo and Puerto Rican descent provides a rare glimpse into the life of a dancer and the disparate influences that shaped him. Read More

Companeras

Compañeras profiles America’s first all-female mariachi band, Mariachi Reyna de Los Angeles, founded in 1994. Read More

Banished

From the 1860s to the 1920s, towns across the U.S. violently expelled African American residents. Today, these communities remain virtually all white. Banished exposes the hidden history of racial cleansing in America. Read More

Miss Navajo

Following pageant contestants in their quest for the Miss Navajo Nation crown, and featuring personal stories of recent winners, Miss Navajo is a unique celebration of womanhood. Read More

Knocking

Following two families who stand firm for their controversial and misunderstood Christian faith, Knocking reveals how Jehovah's Witnesses have helped shape history beyond the doorstep, showing how they have impacted society in surprising ways. Read More

Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes

Take an in-depth look at masculinity in rap music and hip-hop culture — where creative genius, poetic beauty, and mad beats collide with misogyny, violence, and homophobia in this “loving critique” from filmmaker Byron Hurt. Read More

Billy Strayhorn: Lush Life

The composer of "Take the A-Train" and other Duke Ellington hits, Billy Strayhorn struggled with obscurity and prejudice as a successful gay man in the tumultuous middle of the 20th century. Read More

Short Stack 2006

Four films — including the two grand prize-winners of the first Independent Lens Online Shorts Festival — explore questions of love, displacement, belonging, and identity. Short Stack 2006 looks at the rise and fall of a boy's first zit, uprooted sisters taking on a new school, revelations about a mourned father, and country-western romance, Japanese style. Read More

American Made

Trapped in the middle of the desert on their way to the Grand Canyon, a Sikh American family has only one hope: the remote highway and the occasional car that drives by. This film confronts issues of tradition, faith, conformity, and sacrifice. Read More

Fishbowl

Adapted from Lois-Ann Yamanaka’s Wild Meat and the Bully Burgers, this dramatic short follows 13-year-old Lovey of Hilo, Hawaii, as she tries to be anything but herself. Read More