Interviews
January 05, 2024
What Happens to Your Family When You Escape North Korea, and Other Harrowing Tales from Beyond Utopia
Craig Phillips in Beyond the Films
The harrowing, riveting documentary Beyond Utopia, captures what life is like for refugees after escaping North Korea. What happens to the family you left behind? How hard is it to…...
They grew up believing their land was paradise. Now, they risk everything in escaping it. In an unforgettable documentary, follow families on a treacherous journey to defect from their homeland of North Korea, as the threat of severe punishment and possible execution looms over their passage, revealing a world many… Read More
Were trees intentionally planted to exclude and segregate a Black neighborhood? Racial tensions ignite in this documentary, when a historically Black neighborhood in Palm Springs, California, fights to remove a towering wall of tamarisk trees. The trees form a barrier, believed by some to segregate the community, frustrating residents who… Read More
Liberty City, Miami, was home to one of the oldest segregated public housing projects in the U.S. Now with rising sea levels, the neighborhood’s higher ground has become something else: real estate gold. Wealthy property owners push inland to higher ground, creating a speculators’ market in the historically Black neighborhood… Read More
There is a mental health crisis happening for many American farmers. A combination of climate change, the pandemic, and the domination of megafarms have contributed to increasing economic uncertainty and isolation. Following four family farms in the Midwest over several years, the documentary Greener Pastures is a story of perseverance… Read More
Hunting whales is a matter of life or death for the residents of St. Lawrence. When a shy Alaska Native teen becomes the youngest person ever to harpoon a whale for his village, his family is blindsided by thousands of keyboard activists brutally attacking him online—without full perspective on the… Read More
Muslim chaplains in the U.S. military support and defend the religious rights of all service members. But their leadership sparks accusations of disloyalty and even disapproval from within their own communities. Resisting calls to blend in, the chaplains fight to maintain a balanced devotion to Islam, the… Read More
Contests
May 25, 2023
Book Giveaway! Storming Caesars Palace
Independent Lens in Contests
Dig deeper into our award-winning documentary Storming Caesars Palace. We're giving away ten copies of the book that inspired it, Storming Caesars Palace: How Black Mothers Fought Their War on Poverty, by Annelise Orleck. Enter for…...
Beyond the Films
May 16, 2023
From Mothers’ Pensions to Welfare Queens, Debunking Myths about Welfare
Independent Lens in Beyond the Films
By Lennlee Keep A common mindset through modern American history is that people living in poverty simply don't want to work.¹ For decades, politicians have used programs like food stamps, unemployment,…...
Watch Video
February 23, 2023
6 Documentaries About the Black Experience
Independent Lens in Independent Film
Add these Independent Lens docs to your must-watch list. The Big Payback Directed by Erika Alexander and Whitney Dow Outta The Muck Directed by Ira McKinley and Bhawin Suchak The Picture…...