Accident, MD
Accident, MD is a survey of attitudes about America’s healthcare crisis, filmed in and around the small town of Accident, Maryland during the summer before the 2016 election. Read More
Beyond the Films
April 04, 2019
New Efforts to Improve Rural Healthcare Crisis
Independent Lens in Beyond the Films
By Suzanne Gordon The three caregivers we meet in The Providers face daunting challenges as they try to deliver medical and mental healthcare to patients in rural New Mexico. Sadly,…...
Behind the Films
January 24, 2019
Three Things About “The King,” with Eugene Jarecki and Steven Soderbergh
Craig Phillips in Behind the Films
Documentary filmmaker Eugene Jarecki's pedigree is impressive. He has twice won the Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize and the Peabody Award for: The House I Live In, his 2013 film…...
Interviews
January 10, 2019
11 Questions for 3 Filmmakers About a Million Swamp Rats
Craig Phillips in Beyond the Films
The trio of filmmakers behind the Independent Lens film Rodents of Unusual Size -- Jeff Springer, Chris Metzler and Quinn Costello -- have previously captured unique environmental stories with a very…...
Interviews
December 21, 2018
Director Duo Show No Easy Answers in Fight Over Land
Craig Phillips in Behind the Films
The team behind the new Independent Lens film My Country No More, Rita Baghdadi and Jeremiah Hammerling, told us they were drawn to Hammerling's native North Dakota to make this film "because his…...
Lifestyle
December 18, 2018
Favorite Nonfiction Podcasts That Will Keep You Glued to Your Headphones
Independent Lens in Lifestyle
By Brooke Shelby Biggs We nonfiction nerds who are compulsive documentary watchers are usually also public radio listeners and magazine readers. Who among us doesn’t have a closet full of…...
Marcos Doesn’t Live Here Anymore
A special presentation of Independent Lens, FRONTLINE and VOCES. From acclaimed filmmaker David Sutherland (Kind-Hearted Woman, Country Boys, The Farmer’s Wife), Marcos Doesn’t Live Here Anymore examines the US immigration system through the eyes of… Read More
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
November 12, 2018
Filmmakers Navigate the Secretive World of Social Media Censorship in Atmosphere of Fear
Craig Phillips in Beyond the Films
You know German filmmakers Moritz Riesewieck and Hans Block are sharp-minded characters when you learn they work collaboratively under the label “Laokoon,” named after the legendary Trojan seer Laocoön who…...
Test Your Knowledge
November 08, 2018
Delete or Ignore? Pretend You’re a Facebook Content Moderator
Independent Lens in Beyond the Films
In 2018, after much debate and controversy, Facebook finally published its censorship policies. All 27 pages of them. The move, wrote the LA Times, "adds a new degree of transparency…...
Charm City
Charm City is an intimate portrait of a diverse group of neighbors, including police, citizens, community leaders, and government officials who, with grit and compassion, survive in and work to improve their vibrant neighborhoods during a violent three-year stretch in Baltimore. There… Read More
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…...