Judy Shepard lost her son Matthew in 1998 in a horrific hate crime. She is now the president and co-founder of the Matthew Shepard Foundation. She sent us this blog post in anticipation of Tuesday’s broadcast of Two Spirits. The film premieres at 10 PM on June 14 on most PBS stations (check local listings). …
Cathy Renna, managing partner at Renna Communications and former organizer and spokesperson for GLAAD, is featured in the film Two Spirits (premiering on Tuesday, June 14 on PBS; check local listings). She wrote this blog post for us. It is hard to believe that a decade has passed since the brutal murder of Fred Martinez. …
Two Spirits has prompted a lively conversation about gender identity. When talking about issues related to the LGBT community, the always-evolving terminology can be difficult to grasp. When watching this week’s Two Spirits broadcast or in discussions about the film, you may find yourself confused about terms such as “transgender.” Here’s a quick reference guide …
We kicked it off with Bhutto two weeks ago, and last week the PBS family assembled in Orlando, Florida and discussed the ITVS initiative Women and Girls Lead. Check out this panel moderated by Pat Harrison, president of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and featuring actor Geena Davis, PBS President and CEO Paula Kerger, Pulitzer …
Kim A. Snyder is an award-winning filmmaker who has made more than a dozen shorts and two feature documentaries. Her latest film, Welcome To Shelbyville, is premiering on Independent Lens Tuesday May 24 at 10 PM (check local listings). In 2007, Kim co-founded the BeCause Foundation to direct and produce a series of socially conscious …
We caught up with Jessica Oreck, the director of Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo, to talk about her maiden voyage into documentary filmmaking. For a young woman who spent a lifetime fascinated with bugs and movies, Oreck’s film seems almost like the fulfillment of personal destiny, and an unexpected a chance to find the beauty in …
Based on the bestselling book by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, the series Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide will premiere as a special presentation on Independent Lens in Fall 2012. The project is a cornerstone of the recently announced Women and Girls Lead campaign. ITVS and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting announced …
It has been a pretty exciting week around here. On Monday, President and CEO of the Independent Television Service Sally Jo Fifer announced the launch of an ambitious multiyear, multiplatform campaign to bring the powerful storytelling power of independent media to bear on issues surround women and girls worldwide. On Tuesday, we premiered Bhutto, the …
Aspiring filmmaker Sophia Nahli Allison won our Artists Month contest for her striking self-portrait, entitled “Unrequited Love.” We asked her about her art and her life, her guilty pleasures and inspirations, and why Independent Lens matters to her. Tell us a little about yourself. I was born and raised in Los Angeles. My mother was …
The day after Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, political consultant and film producer and director Duane Baughman was on the phone with his colleague Mark Siegel, who had been a close personal friend and confidante of Bhutto’s. In their grief, the two hatched a plan to shoot a film about the Pakistani politician, …
We get the questions often enough here at Independent Lens about PBS, the federal budget, and the idea of publicly funded media in general. Many of our viewers probably aren’t aware that PBS is not a network in the same sense that CBS or even CNN are. Also true is that Independent Lens is produced …
Teachers — often overworked, frequently underappreciated, sometimes demonized, usually meagerly compensated. But all of us have had teachers who helped us grow up and make sense of the world, and to find our place in it. In honor of Teacher Appreciation Week (but really all year long) we want educators to get the props (and …
